


Band is Love, Band is Life

by Cosmosis12



Category: Like OOH-AHH - Twice (Music Video), TT - Twice (Music Video), TWICE (Band)
Genre: 3mix, Again, Band, Blackpink cameo, Concert Band, Conductor - Freeform, Crack, F/F, JYP - Freeform, Multichapter, Music, Random - Freeform, Stereotypes, Symphony - Freeform, chaeyu besties, chaeyu friendship, highschoolAU, michaeng, mimo besties, mimo friendship, satzu - Freeform, slightcrack, twice
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-12 19:41:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 42,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13554240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmosis12/pseuds/Cosmosis12
Summary: Who says band kids don't have fun?





	1. Welcome to Concert Band!

_Welcome to band class._

_________________________________________

 

“You need to be more expressive! Play out! The horn section is lacking in strength!”

_That's because no one wants to play it._

She wasn't really wrong. The French horn was one of the absolute staple sounds of the ensemble, but who in their right mind would want to play that demon of an instrument when they could pick up a trumpet or something less unorthodox any other day? Park Jihyo to this day still didn't quite understand how she chose to play such a monstrosity, especially one that collected so much spit.

_French hornists: Some of the most underappreciated musicians in any given ensemble. Hard workers, dedicated, driven people, and almost always not of French descent. Scores a 6 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

“Too loud! Too loud! I told you horns, play pianissimo! And why do you sound like your chops are already busted, we’ve only just started rehearsal! Let the Bumblebees fly!”

_“Rimsky-Korsakov, you are a bitch.”_

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

_SQUEEEAAA~KKK_

“MOTHERFUCKER SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Chou Tzuyu cringed as a flying black binder flew past her head, barely missing the center of her forehead. The perpetrating students glowered at her angrily before storming away, leaving the clarinet player and her Chromatic Fantasy music by Bach alone in the open band room.

_Clarinetist: Studious, serious, and most likely to enter an Ivy League school. Why college admissions find clarinet players so appealing, the world will never know. Do colleges know that the clarinet has some sort of inherent draw to intelligent kids, or have intelligent kids figured out that the clarinet is college admissions bait? Either way, some clarinet player must’ve figured it out already. Scores a 9 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

The tall girl sighed, licking at her reed and turning her attention back to the sheets before her. She pressed at her slightly sore mouth muscles and brought the clarinet back to her lips, ignoring the pictures of Squidward that continued to pop up on her Facebook page. 

People can be such uncultured barbarians.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“BBAE SAE! BBAE SAE! SHOW ME YOUR BBAE SAE!” 

“GO DAHYUN, GO DAHYUN!”

Kim Dahyun smiled crazily, enjoying the cheers of her peers as she continued to dance like a drunkard on the table. A massive food fight had ensued shortly after and she was loving every second of the makeshift mosh-pit environment she had created. It was almost as loud as her trumpet solo in Gustav Holst’s Jupiter.

_Trumpet players: Loud, expressive, and almost always drunk. Never to be outshone and easily the most obnoxious section in the band. Scores a five out of ten on the nerd scale, despite the tendency to be loud, obnoxious, and flashy._

“KIM DAHYUN, PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE, NOW!”

She was still dancing even as she was dragged away, the cheers of her peers still echoing in her ears.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Give it back!”

Son Chaeyoung glowered at the group of field hockey players who had her reed case in their sweaty hands. The athletes rolled their eyes at the tiny girl.

“Please, what’s so great about a box of two pieces of wood? These look like they could break any minute.” One girl eyed the box with disdain, clearly not understanding any bit of the oboe player’s distress.

_Oboe players: A touch too timid and a little too jumpy. Tends to like art and wear large glasses, and also gets mocked a lot. Maybe that’s why they’re one of the most strong-willed sections in the band. Scores a 10 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

Chaeyoung surged forward with a speed she didn’t know she possessed and snatched the precious black box from their hands. “That’s because these are expensive you idiot!” She ran away soon after, pushing her glasses up her nose and struggling to keep her bag on her shoulder.

_The mockery is so real._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Hey Mina!”

“Mina sunbae! Are you available after school today?”

“Do you read comic books?”

Myoui Mina coolly passed by the onlookers, smiling gently at the juniors who greeted her and casually ignoring the starstruck looks. She stopped by her locker to drop off some things, and her eyes fell on the near-empty box of Hemke size 3 ½ reeds.

_“Shit. I need to stop by the music store after school today.”_

She took out her phone and quickly shot a text to her boss asking for her pay earlier than usual. After receiving a prompt okay, she put her phone away and sighed, gaze falling again on the reed box before closing the locker and heading to the band room, praying her new neckstrap would prevent her alto saxophone from having another damaging meeting with the floor today. 

_Saxophone players: Silent, sexy, spacy, and constantly giving off I-don’t-give-a-fuck vibes. Contrary to popular belief, they actually know exactly what’s going on, and they’re actually much smarter than they seem. Two of two sections of the band that are remotely socially accepted at school. Scores a 3 out of 10 on the nerd scale, but a 9 out of 10 on the cool scale._

When she’d chosen her instrument, no one ever told her how expensive maintenance could be.

(Hopefully Momo saved her some lunch today, she’s broke af.)

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Where’s my mallet bag?”

Mina looked up from her phone idly, slouched posture and feet propped up on another chair. “Can’t you just use those right there? They’re right next you.” She jutted her chin briefly in the general direction of the mallets.

Hirai Momo shook her head, clearly distraught. “No, I can’t use those. I need my other mallets, and they're in my bag.” She was still rummaging through her things, pulling out all sorts of school supplies and papers. 

“Why can't you just use those?”

Momo finally whipped around. “Because, Mina, I’m playing the marimba part for the next song we’re doing! I can’t use hard wood mallets on a marimba! I need the ones wrapped in yarn! With the birch shafts! Do you want me to break a seventeen-thousand dollar rosewood marimba with maple mallets?!”

Mina rolled her eyes and returned to the game on her phone screen.

“You clearly don’t understand!” The distraught percussion player continued to rummage, throwing more papers astray in the air.

_Percussionists:  Colorful, intuitive, and almost as sexy as the saxophone players. Some of the most passionate, creative musicians in the band, with problems much deeper than you could ever imagine. Scores a 2 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

And you all think it's just about hitting things with sticks.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Jeongyeon sulked silently at the back of the band. The conductor of the local marching band had recruited a few students from her high school to play for the upcoming march for some old people festival. She didn’t really know, but she didn’t mind as long as they provided free food.

She wouldn’t have agreed though, if she had known the conductor would be such a dick.

“I SAID, BELLS UP! DON’T YOU HAVE EYES? DON’T YOU HAVE EARS? CAN’T YOU SEE ME WAVING MY ARMS AT YOU TO RAISE THOSE GODDAM BELLS UP? NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU IF YOU’RE SO WIMPY DAMMIT!”

Jeongyeon and the others in her section grunted unhappily as they shifted the trombones up on their shoulders, making a great effort to raise their bells higher in the air.

 _Trombonists: Eccentric and slightly neurotic. Tends to be the butt of all bad days and grouchy conductors. Posses great right-shoulder strength and are experts at counting extremely long measure rests. Scores a 7 out of 10 on the nerd scale._  

“DID YOU HEAR ME, YOO? UP!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

A yawn. The slight shuffling of papers, and another yawn. Someone smacked their lips. Someone dropped a pencil.

Nayeon looked over her shoulder at the so-called noise. She frowned boredly at the sight of the lazing percussionists behind her, turning back around when she failed to catch Momo’s eye. The conductor was currently ironing out a section of the piece with the flutes, effectively ignoring the rest of the band. Nayeon yawned as she slumped down in her seat, hugging her euphonium to her chest.

_Euphonium players: Either seen as fortunate or completely unfortunate. Some days are full of plain quarter notes and rests, some with unreasonable runs and zero time to breath. Generally gets to laze around at the back of the band while trying to ignore the trombones and barry saxes. Scores a 7 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

“I just want you all to know, our next piece is going to be Beethoven’s 5th, so you all better be ready to transpose!”

Nayeon was already fast asleep.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“But conductor, my arm hurts!”

The conductor glared at her unforgivingly. “If you want to participate in my band, then you’ll abide by my rules. And my rules do not have any allowances for poor posture, Miss. Minatozaki.”

The flute player pouted but brought her right arm upright as the conductor gave her one last glare. She winced at the subtle ache in her shoulder.

_Flutists: Cool, chic, I’m-better-than-you-always kind of petite. One of two sections of the band that are remotely socially accepted and, despite outwardly appearance, are secretly jacked in their right arms. Almost always  complains of unfairness in long-note contests. Scores a 4 out of 10 on the nerd scale._

“Minatozaki, if I see you leaning that arm one more time you’re on clean-up duty for the marching band the rest of this week!”

People always rag on flute players because they have one of the most compact instrument cases in the band. Good thing too- these musicians need some time for that lactic acid to settle.


	2. acclamation

[Acclamation - James Curnow](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6n5Y8wumtM)

 

_________________________________________

 

Chaeyoung remembers when she first encountered Myoui Mina.

The staggeringly attractive senior who sat behind her in music theory. Smart, stoic, calm, and relatively void of words, Mina was the epitome of every high schooler’s dreamy fantasy. Chaeyoung is no exception. 

She had first seen Mina when the girl transferred into their band class last year- Mina had been talking to Momo, another girl Mina’s age, and she had a gleaming alto saxophone hanging around her neck. Chaeyoung couldn’t help but stare a little- she was only a little freshman at the time, and she hadn’t much experience with the art of subtlety. Mina had spared her nothing more than a passing glance and a small nod, but that was pretty much all it took. Chaeyoung was blushing like a loser for the rest of the class. 

Mina is tall, cool, mysterious, and absolutely _gorgeous_. 

Too bad Chaeyoung is short, jumpy, and _way_ too nerdy to ever be anyone’s dream fantasy.

The small oboe player sighs, clutching her backpack straps just a little tighter in her small hands. She tries to hurry to her next class; the school year’s just started, she doesn’t want to be late to AP chemistry already. 

She arrives just in the nick of time and quickly makes her way to the unoccupied front row of the chem class. AP chem is full of nerds as it is, but those nerds are all in the other class- Chaeyoung was unfortunate enough to be stuck in the class where there were actually normal kids who were subject to the school’s hierarchy system just like everyone else, and to her luck, most of them were older than her as well.

It’s the third week of school now and Chaeyoung has more or less become acclimated to doing all her lab work alone. She was only taking this class because her guidance counselor placed her in though, and she really doesn’t know anyone else her age here. Everyone already had lab partners when she came in, and no one wants to pay attention to the small, quiet sophomore with dorky glasses who sits alone at the front corner of the class. The teacher was very hands-off and pretty much didn’t even watch the class when it was lab period. Thus, Chaeyoung is on her own.

She sits down and takes out her notebooks and pens, hunched over and ready to be the studious student she is. She doesn’t notice Mina walking into the class a beat after she does, going up and talking to the teacher before taking a seat at the back with some of her friends.

The teacher stands up to get everyone’s attention and the room falls silent. “Alright guys, we’ll be continuing our unit on pH and acidity. I want you all to pay attention, there’ll be a lab assignment tomorrow using titration and I expect nothing less than perfect on that lab.” A collective groan from the class. The teacher ignores them and continues,

“Myoui, if you need catching up, ask someone near you.”  
  
Chaeyoung nearly chokes at the mention of the name and it takes everything within her small little body to not turn around and look. She wonders since when Myoui Mina’s been in this class, and she groans silently to herself- even more opportunities to make a fool of herself in front of one of the most desired girls in the entire school.

It’s a long class time for Chaeyoung.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sana is humming cheerfully to herself as she makes her way to an empty practice room, skipping history for the eighth time since the school year has started. She closes the door behind her and flips the sign to ‘occupied’ before sitting down and ruffling through some sheet music. Band this year was no joke- the standards had been raised and everyone thought Minatozaki Sana, the ditzy first-chair flutist (no one actually knows how she ended up in that chair- she can barely hold her flute up for a single rehearsal) would inevitably miss the standard. No one actually thought she would be able to play the music, especially as first-flute- except for Momo, who was the most innocently naive of them all.

Sana had to prove them wrong though. She had never been so determined in her life.

Why?

Because of the flute-clarinet duet she would have in the last piece with Tzuyu.

Sana sets her music out in front of her and begins to assemble her flute. It is imperative that she at least is able to play the duet part by the time of the concert (which is all the way in December, but Sana has never really set high standards for herself) because her success in establishing contact with Tzuyu depends on it.

Tzuyu may be on the floor of the hierarchy system, but she’s the prettiest girl Sana thinks she’s ever seen ever.

That’s probably an exaggerated statement though; Sana changes crushes faster than Nayeon changes clothes- just last week she was crushing on some cute junior named Eunha who had big eyes and an innocent vibe. The week after was a guy named Jackson, whose broad shoulders and coiffed hair had her swooning for days. There had been others sprinkled around here and there, but then Tzuyu came around with her dark eyes and stoic face and clarinet in tow. Sana is intrigued by this younger girl who doesn’t seem the least bit interested in talking to her and instead chooses to befriend Son Chaeyoung, the nerdy oboe player whom she’s convinced is crushing on Myoui Mina instead. Sana doesn’t know how the world works sometimes. 

Well, Chaeyoung is a nice kid she supposes.

In the end, Sana is Sana and Sana is determined, and Sana always- _always_ \- gets what she wants. 

Or who, in this case.

She raises her flute to her lips and gets to work.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It’s lunch time, and it doesn’t get more chaotic than this.

Jihyo is placidly listening to something Nayeon is telling her, nodding so often every here and there pretending like she’s listening. Jeongyeon chooses that precise moment to plop down next to Nayeon, and a fight immediately breaks out.

Momo joins them soon after. Momo is relatively new to the school, and she still doesn’t have many friends. She and Jeongyeon are seatmates in a couple classes though, so naturally she gets to known Jeongyeon’s friend group first. Jihyo and Nayeon are more than welcoming to the Japanese girl though, so Momo sits with them. Mina is also with them most of the time, although sometimes she hangs out with her other friends on the ‘cooler’ side of the cafeteria. Mina has never been one for labels though- she’ll do anything and talk to anyone, as long as it suits her fancy. It’s part of her charm, the way she has really no bias and thought of the social hierarchy that inevitably plagues every high school setting. Maybe that’s why she has so many fangirls. 

Across the room, Dahyun is dancing on a table and Sana is clapping and cheering beneath her, along with the rest of the mob who support the trumpet player’s extra and excessive actions. They mingle sometimes, but it’s mostly just Dahyun and her nutty friends looking for trouble and Sana going with the flow of all the other popular kids she’s friends with. They’re both known to be friendly though, although Sana is a complete moron sometimes and Dahyun can be a little too boisterous. 

In the corner by the window, Tzuyu and Chaeyoung occupy a lone table. They don’t even sit with the nerds- even they have turned their noses up at Chaeyoung, who is easily the nerdiest of them all. With her oversized round glasses, short stature, and inexplicably shy nature (don’t forget her oboe) she is at the floor of the metaphorical pyramid. Tzuyu isn’t much better off, but Tzuyu is taller and her looks are hard to ignore (Chaeng hides hers behind those glasses). Chaeyoung was the first friend Tzuyu had made upon transfer though- they bonded instantly over their respective dorky instruments and mutual love for Bach. To her credit, Tzuyu stuck around and Chaeyoung at least now knows someone who is willing to talk to her.

“There she goes again.” Tzuyu says, watching Dahyun get dragged off the table by a couple of frazzled teachers. 

Chaeyoung picks at her salad. “You’d think she’d have learned her lesson by now.”

Tzuyu shrugs and takes a sip from her water bottle. “Well where’s the fun in that?” She asks. Her face conveys no emotion but her eyes carry a small sparkle, and Chaeyoung just laughs to herself. 

“Hopefully they’ll let her go in time for band class today. The trumpet section actually kinda sucks without her.”

Tzuyu nods. “Hate to admit it, but yeah. It’s a lot less dynamic without her. I guess she’s first chair for a reason.” 

Nayeon, Jihyo, Jeongyeon, Mina, and Momo stop their incessant bickering to watch Dahyun get dragged away. Jihyo sighs and turns back to the group.

“You’d think she’d have learned her lesson by now.”

Nayeon snickers at her junior’s unfortunate predicament. “At least she’s entertaining. And cute, in that nine-year-old-son-I-never-wanted kind of way.”  
  
“Aren’t you talking about yourself?” Jeongyeon doesn’t miss a beat and they’re back at it again. 

Jihyo shakes her head at the duo and turns to Mina and Momo instead. “I hope they let her out in time for band though. The trumpet section sounds duller without her.”

Mina winces and shakes her head. “No way. I hope they keep her for as long as possible- you don’t know what it’s like to have the blast of her obnoxious trumpet aiming at your head for a solid hour.”

She had a point. Mina and the rest of the saxophone section were unfortunate enough to always sit directly in front of the trumpet section- the section that plays the loudest and that always had their bells aimed at the back of the sax players’ heads. It was no secret that for all Dahyun’s skill and all Mina’s chill, the older girl not-so-discreetly hated the trumpet section at times, especially Dahyun- she was the best and she played the most. 

Momo shrugs. “I stand behind them. I don’t understand your struggle.”

“Of course you don’t.” Mina rolls her eyes at her fellow senior.

Jeongyeon nods, breaking away from her argument long enough to offer her two cents. “We’ll find out soon enough I guess. Do any of you losers know how to do my chem homework?” She pushes a sheet of balancing equations in front of her friends. “It’s extra credit for my bio class; we’re learning protein synthesis next, and I’m gonna need these five bonus points on that test.” 

Jihyo scrutinizes it carefully. Nayeon and Momo don’t even bother looking. Jihyo looks up apologetically after a few moments. “Sorry Jeong, I don’t remember.”

Nayeon looks over at Mina curiously. “Hey, aren’t you taking chem this year? I heard you switched into Yuju and Sowon’s class the other day.”

Mina chuckles. “I need catching up myself. And we didn’t cover element synthesis and stuff yet.”

Momo looks up from her enormous meal. “Is there anyone smart in your class who can help you and Jeong?” 

“I mean, Yuju and Sowon aren’t exactly helpful in that aspect.” Jihyo pipes in. “They’re… lackluster at best, I suppose.”

Mina shrugs and looks off at her surroundings. She spots Minatozaki Sana flirting with some poor unsuspecting girl, Jackson Wang is getting beat up next to her by his mates, Kang Seulgi and her popular friends are sitting at the center of the cafeteria talking and laughing, and a table in the corner with just two occupants, a small brunette and a much taller brunette sitting across from each other, talking softly.

 _“I guess I’ll ask around.”_ Mina thinks to herself. She turns back to Nayeon, who has asked her who the prettiest among them is, and allows the chaos to wash over her senses. 

Chem can’t be that hard, right?


	3. anybody's got the power

[Mars - Gustav Holst](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmk5frp6-3Q)

 

_________________________________________

 

It’s gym time and, to Chaeyoung’s chagrin, it’s dodgeball day.

_Here goes nothing._

The game starts, vicious and unrelenting with both teams hashing it out like it’s their last day on earth, and Chaeyoung can only cower in the corner as she prays to every entity she knows to keep her glasses intact.

Tzuyu has wisely stepped up front once the game started and is gently taken out by one of the confused attackers from the other team. She doesn’t hesitate to go sit down, and Chaeyoung silently curses her for bouncing so early on in the game. She’s too timid to go up and get ousted herself though, so she can only crouch in her corner and pray this will all be over soon.

Fortunately her prayers work- but that doesn’t mean her ousting is any less humiliating. She shuffles as quickly as she can with her head low as players of the opposing team jeer her loss. It’s another normal day for Son Chaeyoung, and she sits next to Tzuyu when it’s all over 

Tzuyu pats her back. “Look alive Chaeng. At least it’s over for the week.”

She’s no help.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Band finally rolls around and the conductor hasn’t arrived yet. Jihyo, being the diligent french hornist she is, carefully applies valve oil to her slides and valves. Jeongyeon is loitering around next to her with her trombone, swinging it about precariously as she waits to use Jihyo’s valve oil (because who brings their own supplies these days that’s called being prepared for class and Jeongyeon sure as hell ain’t about that life.)

Dahyun is actually busy tuning her section because their poor embouchures always lead to someone playing waaay too flat, even on the third trumpet part that has the most low notes. Sana has her flute out, but she’s not playing- no, she’s polishing. She wipes down the mouthpiece, then the body in painstakingly precise motions until the instrument is tall and gleaming with the force of a thousand suns. Sana, after the longest time, is finally satisfied with her polishing session and beams just as brightly at the flute. What’s the point in playing if the thing isn’t pretty, she reasons?

Tzuyu is sitting in her seat, back ramrod straight as she assesses the piece before her with the eyes of a hawk. She moves her mouthpiece to the right just a touch so her finger alignment is a smidge better before she even attempts to play a warmup scale. Her phone and all its cartoon spam is tucked away safely in her backpack. She is nothing but determined, focused only on the notes before her.

Nayeon has already dozed off in the back, hugging her euphonium like a teddy bear. 

Chaeyoung is sitting hunched in her seat as she delicately takes out one of her double-reeds from its case and places it between her lips. She proceeds to carefully put the pieces of her instrument together, almost as precise as Tzuyu in the way she aligns the keys. There are the quiet sounds of the rest of the kids practicing their runs and playing through some songs (save for the occasional blasts from the trumpet section) and it’s pretty peaceful, especially for a band class.

Until Momo bursts in and makes a beeline for the snare drum (her sectionmates are close behind, always following the principal percussionist), taking the crash cymbals and the mounted bass drum respectively. That’s when the headache starts, and the rest of the band decides to have an exponential increase in volume because really, what fun is band if you can’t even hear yourself play? 

The noise does nothing to rouse Nayeon from her slumber, but Jeongyeon has finally had enough of waiting for Jihyo to finish her meticulous oiling process. She snatches the bottle away and makes a break for it as Jihyo sits, dumbfounded for a moment, before the other girl leaps up and charges after the perpetrator. Dahyun has also conveniently finished tuning the trumpet section and starts blasting some sort of march on her instrument, to Mina’s chagrin. Momo matches her snare drum to Dahyun’s march, which is almost definitely some sort of Sousa rendition, and the rest of the percussionists are quick to join them. Tzuyu is undeterred by all the noise, is stubbornly focusing on her music- until Jeongyeon accidentally runs into her stand and topples the whole thing over, Jihyo hot on her heels. Tzuyu is left to stare down at the trombone-french horn duo grappling over a 2.5 oz bottle of valve oil as her music is scattered astrew. Someone in the saxophone section suddenly starts blasting ‘Careless Whisper’ and Mina’s competitive side lights up, (as she’s never to be outdone,) and soon there’s a volume competition in what is easily the fourth-loudest section in the entire band that results in ear-shattering squeaks and poor tone. What could’ve been a lovely song quickly becomes one of the most hated songs in the school- it’s just way too overplayed.

Sana has decided early on that the whole ‘volume competition’ thing is a lost cause for her as a flute player so she contents herself with sitting in her seat and staring blankly across the room at a displeased Tzuyu, who still has to watch Jeongyeon and Jihyo fight on the ground as they trample her sheet music. The second-chair flute, an arrogant, try-hard, hardcore senior as well, glowers at Sana by himself- because why does she get to be first-chair when all she does is sit there and polish her goddam flute? His hatred for her is probably recognized by everyone in the band, except by Sana herself (and Momo because let’s be real, when does Momo ever know anything?). It’s almost comical when Sana trumps him at every music competition they ever participate in, and everyone knows that this kid would be on top if it weren’t for a certain Minatozaki Sana. But Sana could care less (and what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her), so no one bothers to tell her.

The conductor finally walks in but his presence does nothing to deter the rowdiness of the room. “Alright guys, settle down!”

Nothing. They don’t even hear him. Except for Sana, but his command doesn’t quite register in her mind and she’s not doing much anyway (unless staring at Tzuyu counts as much). Jihyo is still beating Jeongyeon into the ground, Momo is still playing along with Dahyun’s cover of Semper Fidelis, Mina is blasting Careless Whisper along with five other saxophone players, and Nayeon is sleeping serenely in the back. She even begins to snore.

The conductor finally goes over to stop Jihyo from killing Jeongyeon and the trombone player reluctantly returns the valve oil before shuffling to her spot in the back, a few chairs down from Nayeon. Tzuyu finally is able to pick up her stand and collect the fallen music sheets, settling in her spot at the front. Dahyun finally shuts up and Momo does too, and Mina slouches down in her seat, hands in pockets and sax hanging loosely around her neck. 

The conductor clears his throat. “Thank you. And would someone wake Miss. Im, please?” 

Jeongyeon reaches over with her trombone and taps the snoring girl on her exposed double chin. Nayeon finally stirs and blinks, shifting her vice grip around her instrument and straightening up.

“Glad you’ve joined us, Miss. Im. Now today, we’re going to start with a B flat concert scale, then a C, then an F. If you don’t know your starting notes, ask someone near you. Ready?”

Sana’s hand immediately goes up. “I don’t know my starting note!”

“Sana, your instrument is concert pitch.” 

“Oh. You’re right!”

The flutist puts her hand down and gazes wonderingly at her flute. The boy next to her rolls his eyes from behind his pretentious glasses and holds his flute up to his lips.

Sana slouches over and leans her arm on said boy’s chair, receiving a vicious side glare but she doesn’t seem to notice. The scales start, and she gets away with it until the F major. The conductor lowers his baton to glare at her threateningly.

“Minatozaki!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Sana holds up her hands in surrender before adjusting her posture and actually attempting to play the scales.

Momo snickers from her snare drum all the way in the back. She receives a glare as well. Sana waves to the girl flirtatiously before returning her attention back to the grumpy old man at hand.

They proceed with their scales and all is quiet for a fleeting, beautiful moment, and then they start their first piece- it’s Mars by Gustav Holst, and it’s pretty new to them. It’s a unique piece though, that’s for sure, and it’s got a lot of interesting rhythms to it.

The conductor is explaining all the switches in time signatures and Dahyun is absolutely bored. She is able to entertain herself by watching the clouds float by for a bit, but that isn’t enough to keep her attention for long.

So when it’s finally time to play, she blasts those notes like never before and it sounds awful.

“Kim Dahyun! Stop it!”

“It wasn’t me!”

“Yoo Jeongyeon! Stop it!”

The bewildered trombonist is appalled. “Did that sound like a trombone to you?!”

“Are you talking back to me?!”

“I didn’t even do anything wrong- YOU’RE the one yelling at me! I don’t even play this part!”

“That’s it! Outside, now! And bring your trombone with you. Might as well get some practice there if you’re not going to be productive here!” 

Jeongyeon throws her hands up in the air and trudges out in the hall. Nayeon doesn’t forget to stick out her foot and send the other girl reeling on her way out.

 _The injustice of it all._  

Tzuyu finally looks up from her music and sees nothing other than the bright eyes of Minatozaki Sana staring openly (and blankly) at her. The flute player is surprised for a moment, then smiles brightly and waves at the younger girl who only stares back at her. Tzuyu may be younger than Sana, but given Sana’s notorious reputation, it’s no wonder than Tzuyu thinks Sana is an idiot. A total idiot. 

Sana, of course, is oblivious to all this because she is indeed an idiot and only continues to stare at Tzuyu until the younger girl is officially creeped out and solidifies Sana’s status as a weirdo in Tzuyu’s young mind. Tzuyu tries to ignore her and focus on the music- they’ve started playing the beginning bars of Mars, downtempo, but she’s already lost count of how many measures have passed. The song is kind of dark and ominous, something Tzuyu would normally enjoy playing, but the flutes are resting in these opening bars as well so Sana continues to stare and Tzuyu feels herself starting to sweat.

The conductor stops them to review counting in 5/4 and it’s something basic that most of them already know (save for a select few trumpet players plus Sana) so most of them take the time to zone out and be unproductive. The rest of class is surprisingly quiet, and it’s actually not the worst class in the world. They somehow manage to get through the first section sight-reading, and sure there’s a lot to practice, but it’s not bad for a group of high schoolers and the conductor is beyond pleased. He lets them go a few minutes earlier than usual and they all scramble to put their instruments away in their band lockers before the bell rings and the band hallway is flooded with people.

The conductor stops Sana on her way out. “Minatozaki, a minute please.”

The girl stops mid-rise. “Yes? What is it?”

“I wanted to ask you about the flute-clarinet part in Ode to Joy. Have you looked at it?” 

Sana blinked. “Yes.”

“...”

“...”

“Well?”  
  
“Well, what?” 

The conductor sweatdrops. “Do you think you can play it?”

Sana nods. “It’ll take me a little practice, but I’ll definitely get it down.” She smiles brightly, and it’s moments like these when the conductor is reminded why Sana is the first chair.

However, they aren’t alone. The boy who sits next to Sana has been waiting- waiting, and watching- for an opportunity like this. He speaks up, “Sir, with all due respect, I would like to suggest the possibility of auditions for the part.”

Sana turns and blinks at him. The conductor doesn’t know what to say. 

He continues. “I think there are many other players who are interested in the first-chair parts who will not get the opportunity to ever play them. Actually, I think there are many players in our section who would be interested in becoming the permanent first-chair flutists.” 

The conductor is definitely taken aback- it’s very rare that someone challenges for the first part solos. Usually the upperclassmen play the first parts, and the first chair plays any solos in those parts, and the underclassmen divide the second and occasional third parts. Sure there’s always a little envy and resentment from the other upperclassmen to the first-chair, but they usually keep it to themselves or they don’t care enough to say anything. The underclassmen are usually pretty relaxed when it comes to parts since they know they’ll have a chance to fight for the first chair in years to come. It’s probably a first in this band for anyone to challenge for first-chair, but the boy is not backing down.

The conductor is a little flustered, and Sana says nothing as she continues to stare at the challenger to her seat. The conductor looks back and forth between the two, at the boy’s unrelenting stature to the slowly hardening eyes of his current first chair.

“Well- well, I suppose there can be an audition of sorts for the chair if you truly think there are others who would like an opportunity at the seat.”

The boy grins triumphantly, but to his surprise, Sana merely smirks in return. The conductor clears his throat awkwardly and rubs his hands together. “Tell everyone who is interested that they can prepare a solo to play for me in two weeks. I suppose you all can sacrifice a lunch period if you really want to go through with this, yes?” 

“Of course sir. And I trust this will be a private endeavor?” The boy smiles fakely, politely at the conductor.

“Nah.”

Both heads turn to Sana, who suddenly doesn’t look all that ditzy anymore.

“Make it public. Anyone who wants to come can come. After all, we’ll show only the best, right conductor?" 

He visibly balks for a minute, and the boy blanches. Sana side-eyes him with a devilish smirk and turns back to the conductor expectantly.

He swallows. “I-I suppose that wouldn’t hurt. I’ll see you all at the audition then. Don’t forget.”

Sana smiles prettily at the boy, the conductor, turns on her heels, and leaves.

_Ain’t nobody getting my ass hit for this._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sana isn’t stupid.

Well, in certain sense at least.

She’s well aware of the hatred the second-chair flutist has for her. She’d hoped at one point that they could get along, like Momo and the percussion section who follow her like they’re her disciples, but her hopes were short-lived as the boy made it clear from the day Sana took the first-chair that they would be adversaries for the rest of high school. She took little note of the competition he was pushing between them though- she had her chair and she liked to get along with everyone, and even though she seemed like she didn’t know all too much about music, she could care less that this made him even more spiteful towards her. Until today, when he actually confronted her about this whole thing. 

Sana was nothing but confident when she coolly accepted the challenge to her seat, obviously shaking the boy some and impressing the conductor, but as she swiveled into the girls’ bathroom, she dropped her bag with a thud and groaned, sinking down to the ground.

_What have I done._

She had no idea what she was gonna play, and she knew- this boy meant business; he wouldn’t be easy to top. None of the others would. And now this would be a public event for the entire student body and administration to attend.

_Great._

She sighs, splashed some water on her face, and leaned on the sink despairingly. “I’m an idiot.” She groans aloud to herself, then stopped short.

Son Chaeyoung had stepped out of the stall furthest from the door just in time to hear her statement and witness the usually bubbly Minatozaki Sana’s uncharacteristic breakdown. Their eyes met through the mirror and Chaeyoung froze- she looked like a deer in headlights, like she’d seen something she shouldn’t have seen.

“S-Sorry!” Chaeyoung squeaks in the smallest voice Sana has ever heard from an underclassman, making an effort to scurry away without her bag falling from her small frame. Sana blinks; she hadn’t meant to scare the girl, and she reaches out to grab the girl with lightning reflexes.

Chaeyoung visibly pales at the contact and makes a last-ditch attempt to leave, but Sana holds her back. “Relax, will you? I didn’t mean to scare you.” She says, attempting to replace her uncharacteristically intense look with a smile. 

Chaeyoung cowers just a little, and Sana actually feels something in her heart melt a little at the large emotive eyes that stare up at her from behind round, wire-rimmed glasses. Chaeyoung reminds her of someone- someone she treasures dearly, and she makes a mental note to be a little softer around this one. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

Chaeyoung nods. “I’m okay. I’m sorry for earlier.” She says softly, not meeting Sana’s eyes as she speaks.

“Don’t be. It wasn’t your fault for being in the bathroom. But, why do you look so scared?” 

Chaeyoung looks down at her hands which are covered by the sleeves of her sweater. “These kind of encounters usually don’t end too well for me. I try to come when there are less people, I didn’t think anyone would be here at this time.” She mumbles quietly, and Sana softens. 

“Well, I’m usually not here at this time either. I just needed to cool off a little.” 

Chaeyoung looks up hesitantly and finally blinks up at her. “Are you alright?” 

Three simple words, yet they somehow held so much more weight when coming from the smaller girl. Sana shrugs airily and leans back on the sink. “Well I guess I could be better. You wouldn’t happen to be friends with the second-chair flutist would you?”

“I don’t think he has many friends. But I’m not one to talk.”

“He wants my chair and there’s an open audition in two weeks for it.”

Chaeyoung is surprised. She knows just as well as Sana does about how uncommon and forward that is. “Oh. And you agreed to it?”

“Of course! I have my pride too, you know?”

“So what’s the problem?”

Sana throws her hands up despairingly. “I have no idea what I’m gonna play! And he’s good, and everyone else is good, and I want my chair to be mine because I earned it not because I was too afraid to take some challenge from some asshole for it!” 

She’s pretty much shouting now, venting her inner fears and frustrations to an underclassman she didn’t even know, but Chaeyoung just listens to her and watches her pace. The younger girl is calm and quiet, watching Sana get more and more worked up (dramatism is in her nature, therefore it’s only natural for her to cause a mini scene in front of her junior) until the door opens and Tzuyu storms in.

“What’s going on?” The tallest says coldly, immediately stepping protectively in front of Chaeyoung. Sana blinks and stops mid-rant, confused to the instant hostile treatment.

Chaeyoung peeks her head out from behind Tzuyu’s extremely tall figure and tries tapping the taller girl on the shoulder. “Tzuyu we-”

“Was she messing with you?”

Sana is startled by the glare Tzuyu sends her way. “We were just-”

“Stay away from Chaeyoung. Don’t mess with her again.” Tzuyu speaks with ice in every word before grabbing Chaeyoung and dragging her out of the bathroom. Sana is left alone, confused and upset, and she groans. 

Great. First the overly-aggressive weirdo who sits next to her in band challenges her chair, and now the girl of all her affections hates her.

_Great._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Chaeyoung goes home that night to do her homework, but she’s distracted.

_“What was that for?” She asks Tzuyu as the Taiwanese girl angrily drags her from the bathroom back to class._

_“What? You didn’t come back to class so I was wondering where you went. Tell me if she ever says anything to you again.”_

_Chaeyoung scratches her head. “She wasn’t- we were just- she didn’t do anything to me. We were just talking.”_

_Tzuyu looks at her, unconvinced, and Chaeyoung reads the look on her face perfectly_ ‘Why would she talk to you.’

_Chaeyoung groans before Tzuyu can even voice her thoughts. “Oh come on. I’m not that unpleasant to be around.”_

_Tzuyu arches an eyebrow and Chaeyoung smacks her indignantly, eliciting a small laugh from her for the first time since lunch. “I’m kidding Chaeng. But seriously, Sana sunbaenim is weird. I’d stay away from her if I were you.”_  
  
Chaeyoung casts a last glance over her shoulder at Sana who is too far to hear them and has just exited the washroom. The older girl catches her eye and just watches them walk back to class (French, Chaeyoung’s favorite) and Tzuyu keeps her eyes ahead, stoic, serious, and alert as always.

 _Chaeyoung finds a piece of paper in her locker after school. ‘_ I’m sorry for earlier. I didn’t mean to upset you or your friend. Let me make it up to you ~Sana’

_There are a string of numbers at the bottom, which Chaeyoung can only assume to be a phone number. Tzuyu looks up from her phone and glances over at her curiously. “What’s taking you?” She asks, leaning over to glance into the locker._

_Chaeyoung crushes the note in her hand and slams the locker shut._

_“Nothing. Let’s go.”_

She’s left stealing sparse glances at the paper, wondering if she should call the older girl. Sana may be ditzy, but she seemed genuine earlier and Chaeyoung couldn’t help her curiosity despite Tzuyu’s warning. She couldn’t blame Tzuyu for her behavior though- Chaeyoung is an easy target and Tzuyu literally isn’t afraid of anyone, so Tzuyu has taken it upon herself to stick up for Chaeyoung whenever she feels necessary (and she’s usually right when she interferes- Chaeyoung doesn’t exactly have it easy with all the bullies around). Sana seemed a bit stressed earlier though, and Chaeyoung is really tempted to text her for a brief moment, but the piles of unfinished homework and study materials on her desk are more pressing than anything she can think of at the moment.

_Hm. Maybe tomorrow._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Tzuyu heads to the music store that night to purchase new reeds. She plays a lot and she’s running out. Her parents, both successful business people, are more than happy to fund her musical endeavors so reed money isn’t a problem for Tzuyu; she’s even told by her father to get maintenance on the instrument, or to just buy a new, nicer one.

Tzuyu isn’t one to throw money around though, and she’s quite happy with her current clarinet, so she heads straight to the large reed section of the music store and stares at the extensive selection. 

The music store is usually pretty quiet and the reed section is usually quieter. Most people like to ask for their reeds up front without having to go through the hassle of going through the large reed section themselves to find their products. Tzuyu enjoys it though- she likes the serenity of the music store and she likes looking at all the different options. Different reeds play differently, Tzuyu knows that well, and she’s much more sensitive than other reed players her age to how different reeds play with her instrument and affect her sound. Most of the people who frequent this store are high schoolers (not many professional musicians live in this town) who aren’t sensitive to these knicks, and tend to just purchase whatever’s cheapest. Reeds aren’t cheap to begin with, even the considerably less expensive ones.

She’s not alone today though. 

As she turns the corner to the large reed library, she almost bumps into someone. She veers sharply to the left and narrowly avoids a head-on collision

“Wow. Didn’t see you there, sorry ‘bout that.”

Tzuyu looks up to see a familiar face. It’s none other than Myoui Mina, one of the most popular girls in school.

“Oh. Hello sunbaenim.” She bows politely to her senior, but Mina stops her.

“Just call me unnie. We’re in band together.” She speaks comfortably with a casual, cool air, and Tzuyu understands why everyone admires her so much.

Tzuyu blinks. “You know me?”

Mina tilts her head like it’s obvious. “Of course, Tzuyu. You play clarinet, don’t you?”

Tzuyu can’t say she isn’t surprised that Mina actually knows her name. “Oh. Well in that case, what brings you here?”

Mina gestures to the wall of reeds before them and smiles. “Reeds. Can’t you tell?” 

Tzuyu blinks. “You can just go up front and ask them to ring up a box for you.” 

“I know. But I bought a new kind last time I came here and it plays like butter, so I thought I’d check out the other options from the same company.” Mina responds simply, floating to the saxophone section and gazing up at the various boxes.

Tzuyu tilts her head curiously. “Why not stick to Hemke or something?”

Mina shrugs. “They’re nice but I’ve got a Sigurd Rascher mouthpiece, and I want a reed that sounds nicer with a classical setup.” 

“What did you have in mind?” Tzuyu is genuinely curious now, as she herself also has a classical setup on her clarinet (she loves Bach’s music with a passion). She’s gone through a variety of reeds, but she hasn’t found one she totally loves yet- especially for the unique brand of classical she likes to play.

“Légère. Their classical series is pretty sweet for people who play classical music, if you’re willing to drop that money. I’ve also got a couple of Hemkes on hand, for lighter genres.”

Mina plucks a box from the fray and holds it up for Tzuyu to see. It’s a brand of synthetic reed that Tzuyu hasn’t seen before and it’s no wonder- she glances at the spot that Mina plucked it from and only sees two more next to it. It’s certainly not a common brand, especially for young players, and Tzuyu’s interest is instantly piqued.

“Do they come for clarinets too?”

“Of course. Check higher though, no one really buys them around here.”

Sure enough, there are a couple boxes higher up in the clarinet section and Tzuyu considers the strength carefully before taking one and examining it. “Looks interesting.”

Mina chuckles. “Wait till you play it. It’ll blow you away.” She smiles and waves as she goes to check out.

Tzuyu tries it out later that night and it’s as amazing as Mina said it would be. She spends three hours with her clarinet that she should be spending on schoolwork.


	4. you can be my guiding light

[Sea Songs - Ralph Vaughan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67eu-zjf1ps)

 

_________________________________________

 

Today is Saturday. It’s a lovely day for sleeping, and that’s just what Mina is planning to do.

Planning.

“Mina! Mina? Miiiiiiiinaaaaa??? MINA?? MIIINAAAAAAA!!!! EXCUSE ME?? IS ANYONE HOME??”

_Oh my Lord._

Mina tries her best to cover the screams coming from outside her house with her pillow but it’s useless. The screaming prevails (she has an inkling she knows who it is; there’s only one person she knows who is loud and audacious enough to disrupt an entire neighborhood at seven on a Saturday morning,) yet she can’t find it in herself to actually leave the comfort of her bed to open the door. So she does what any U.S born-and-raised teenager would do: go back to sleep. 

Her peace is short-lived.

The screaming miraculously stops and Mina somehow manages to doze off again, but then she hears footsteps running outside her window across her lawn to the back of her house. There is more than one set and that should probably be her warning to get her ass out of bed before her house burns down.

She groans and throws the covers off her half-asleep form before shuffling downstairs to make herself some coffee. She stops short when she reaches the kitchen- her kitchen window is open and there is a foot gingerly sticking itself inside, trying to find a foothold.

She stares, unimpressed at the scenario, before heading off to make her coffee. There are hushed voices coming from her back porch, and the foot flails faster trying to find a solid platform. 

Mina pours herself a freshly-brewed cup of Nescafe coffee and sips at the froth on top contentedly. She opens the fridge and takes out a cup of yogurt, then washes some blueberries and slices a banana to go with her light breakfast. In the meantime, the foot in her window finally manages to land on one of her kitchen counters. There are some frantic flapping noises and hushed cheering, and Mina goes to her cabinet to get some oats to sprinkle over her yogurt. It’s a picturesque yogurt bowl so she takes a picture _(this is definitely going on the gram later)_ and she tucks in, sipping at her coffee and scrolling through her Instagram feed _(she’d reached 1k+ a couple days ago and she was always looking for new content to grace her followers’ feeds with)._

The foot makes it a little further inside and there’s real cheering this time. Soon Kim Dahyun’s head follows the foot and the younger girl scrambles her way in the window to perch on Mina’s kitchen counter. Mina looks up from her coffee.

“ASSA! Guys, I made it- eh?” Dahyun stops short, still crouched on the counter, eyes widening as she sees Mina sitting at her table calmly sipping frothed Nespresso. “S-Sunbaenim?? You were here the whole time?!”

Mina looks at her. “This is my house. I live here.” She explains calmly, spooning some more yogurt from the white porcelain bowl.

Dahyun actually seems a little flustered. “Oh my gosh! You're as cool as they say you are!”

Mina blinks. “Excuse me?” She asks, perplexed.

Dahyun is flailing her limbs a little now as she wriggles off the counter and effectively invades Mina’s open kitchen space. “Mina sunbae, I want to be just like you when I grow up!”

Mina is actually a little flustered herself at this point. “Do I- do I even know you?!”

“No, I don’t think so.” Dahyun replies with a shake of her head and a broad smile.

“Then why are you breaking into my house?! Who even invited you here?”

Dahyun perks up. “Oh! I forgot about the unnies!” She exclaims, rushing to the locked glass sliding door that leads to the deck. She hastily unlocks it and scurries out to the deck, leaning over the railings. “Guys! I made it! And guess what; she’s been awake this whole time!”

“What?! That’s impossible! Mina doesn’t wake up on weekends until three in the afternoon!” Mina hears a faint voice call back, and the remark makes her blood boil. She puts her spoon down and rushes out after Dahyun.

“YAH. That is false and untrue! I’m up now aren’t I?!” She seethes as she rains her glorious morning appearance down on the trespassers, complete with stylish penguin-print pajama pants and a loose grey t-shirt. The sun shines right behind her head and she’s practically glowing. Her friends have to squint to see her.

Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and Nayeon look back up at her from the grass.  “She looks like a hobo.” Nayeon snickers and they giggle silently to themselves for a few moments before Jeongyeon finally decides she’s hungry and needs to go inside. 

“Oi, Mina! Great timing, could you unlock that back door please?” Jeongyeon calls from her seated position, legs sprawled out in front of her in a very unladylike fashion.

Mina waves a hand at Dahyun telling her to go unlock the door. The younger girl complies and runs off, and Mina turns back to glare at her friends. “Why couldn’t you come in through the front door instead of sending Dahyun through the window?”  
  
“We didn’t want to wake you up.” Nayeon replies like it’s the most normal thing on earth. “And Dahyun is the only one who fits through there- of course we had to send her.”

“She could be a contortionist.” Jeongyeon praises, eliciting a delighted beam from Dahyun.

Mina almost bursts a blood vessel. “You didn’t want to wake me up?! You were standing on my lawn literally _screaming_ for me to open the door!” She howls back, slamming both hands down on the deck railing.

“Correction; Jihyo was screaming.” Jeongyeon yawns through her hand, leaping nimbly to her feet as Dahyun finally manages to open the door.

“And Nayeon! Yeah that’s right- I heard you.” Mina squints at the other girl before going to meet them in the kitchen, where Jeongyeon is already going through her fridge and Jihyo has finished the rest of the Nespresso. 

Nayeon shuts the door after them and helps herself to the leftover chicken wings from last night. “You weren’t coming to open the door.”

“You _said_ you didn’t want to wake me up!”

“Anyway,” Jihyo smoothly interjects, effectively preventing World War III from happening in Mina’s kitchen at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning, “Mina, we’re going to go fishing today. Make sure to put on sunscreen.”

The homeowner stops short, turning to look at Jihyo. “What?”

“I said we’re going fishing today, so don’t forget to put on sunscreen. Gosh woman, don’t you have ears?” Jihyo shoots back, throwing away the peel to her fifth banana of the morning.

Mina blinks. “Why are we going fishing?”

“Because Tzuyu likes to fish and she’s an amazing musician. So if we also go fishing, by default, we should also be amazing musicians. We have a concert coming up in the library in two weeks, have you forgotten Mina?” Nayeon says annoyedly, uncapping Mina’s half-gallon of chocolate soy milk and proceeding to chug directly from the container. She lets out an obnoxious ‘ah~’ and smacks her lips when she’s done, and Mina laments at the sight of the newly emptied container.

_My grocery bills._

“Why do you assume Tzuyu’s good at music because she goes fishing? What if she just practices a lot?” 

They look genuinely stumped at this question. Mina waits patiently, looking at them expectantly.

“Well,” Nayeon begins hesitantly. “She seems like she’s pretty smart.”

“She’s friends with Chaeyoung at least, so she must be a little smart by default, right?” Jeongyeon mumbles thoughtfully.

Dahyun nods. “Yeah. Chaeyoung’s super smart. She’s a good musician too.”

“Who?”

They blink at her. “Chaeyoung. That really small sophomore who plays oboe in band?” Nayeon asks, giving Mina the most condescending look.

“The _only_ oboe player?” Jeongyeon adds pointedly. “You must know her.”

Ah. The word ‘oboe’ lights a bulb in Mina’s head and she internally snaps her fingers. Yes. The small, pretty oboe player who sits behind Sana in the lone oboe seat. She’s the only oboe player, a reborn flute player, and she’s really quiet and kind of cute.

Jihyo had disappeared a bit back and she reappears now with a bottle of sunscreen, which she promptly slaps on Mina’s otherwise perfect face. Mina chokes on her own spit as she feels Jihyo forcefully rubbing the slimy white substance on her skin, and her hands flail for a solid surface to steady herself.

“Jihyo! There’s sunscreen in my eye!”

Dahyun perks at the sight of sunscreen and she trots over. “Ooo, can I get some? I burn really easily.” Jihyo forcefully holds Mina’s smothered face out to the underclassman who gingerly wipes some of the excess sunscreen off Mina’s cheek to rub on her arm. “Wow, I got sunscreen off the Myoui Mina sunbaenim’s face! My friends are going to be so jealous!”

Mina would give her a weird look but there’s sunscreen in her eye, so she decides it’d be best to keep her eyes closed for the time being. After Jihyo’s forced sunscreening Mina is deemed adequately prepared for their fishing trip, so they pile into Jeongyeon’s gunmetal grey Jeep Wrangler Unlimited and head off to God-knows-where to fish.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“SAY,” Mina comments/screams during the bumpy ride (Nayeon has taken over the wheel and it’s a little less than safe; she’s going at least fifty along the off-grid path with her teeth gritted and her foot firmly on the gas, the windows are down, the roof is off, heck the _doors_ are even off, Jihyo is screaming a garish rendition of Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’, Dahyun is playing the tambourine, and Jeongyeon is snapchatting the whole thing) “WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE?”

Dahyun stops her tambourine swinging long enough to answer the question. “Well I wasn’t about to miss an opportunity to break into _the_ Myoui Mina’s house. And I know Momo unnie who knows Jeongyeon unnie- Momo unnie always plays near me in band class.” She screams back, ducking down in her seat just in time to avoid a large tree branch smacking into her forehead.

Mina squints at her. _This is what happens when I don’t bring sunglasses,_ she laments to herself. The sun sure is strong today. “Call me Mina unnie. And I didn’t know you were friends with Momo.”

Dahyun shrugs. “Well now you do.” She replies, and her attention on Mina is lost as the next song comes on (it’s Firework by Katy Perry) and Jihyo takes this opportunity to belt out all the high notes at her full capacity, Nayeon chanting as she drives as encouragement. 

_Why didn’t she join chorus instead?_

After forty-five minutes of hellish and almost certainly illegal driving, they somehow make it to a very serene and beautiful lake where there are canoes and kayaks for rent and an old man selling bait to visiting fishers. 

They rent three boats; two canoes and one one-seater kayak for Mina (there were no more canoes and she was the only one they were sure was fully capable of going out alone and returning in one piece.) Nayeon and Jihyo share a canoe and Jeongyeon and Dahyun take the other. Mina is thrown a fishing rod, some bait, a small pail, and a pineapple-print bucket hat for good measure. _(“It’s sunny today Mina, don’t forget to cover your face.” Jihyo says as she ungracefully slaps Mina in the face with the white hat. Mina splutters a little but says nothing; arguing is futile. She looks down at the pineapples floating about on the hat and accepts her fate.)_

It’s a rough start, but after some arguing and yelling and a _lot_ of squealing, the NaJi and JeongDa canoes manage to get a ways into the water and Mina is on her own. She apologizes to the boat rental ahjussi on behalf of her friends (he and his wife are instantly charmed) and pushes out smoothly on her yellow rental kayak, paddles dipping in the glistening water to propel her forward. She manages to get out to the middle of the lake where there are a couple other visiting fishers scattered about and settles herself down, strapping the paddle safely to the boat and casting her line into the sparkling water. It’s sunny and it’s a beautiful day (good thing too. If it had been raining and she was dragged fishing, she would’ve flayed them all alive), so she pulls her pineapple-print bucket hat a little further over her eyes and relaxes into the leisure time (NaJi and JeongDa look like little dots in their canoes but she can still hear their squabbling from here). A fellow fisher glides smoothly past her and sends a smile. Mina smiles back as the person courteously avoids her line and continues on his way back to the docks.

Mina kicks her feet up on the small pail to relax with her fishing pole clasped between her hands and thighs and she thinks back to her trip to the music store last night. It’s usually pretty quiet there; most people just go up front to ask about their products, or people go in wanting to buy an instrument in which case more specific assistance would be required. But for reed shopping or sheet music shopping, you’d be on your own unless you asked someone up front for a specific brand or title.

Mina is the type that likes to take her time and browse through these kinds of things carefully. She’s been a musician since she was four; her parents had actually started her on piano and ballet, a combination that led her to almost inevitably develop her penchant for classical music, and when she was in fourth grade she was given the opportunity to choose another instrument to learn. She remembers that there was a display of sorts where the older students would bring in their instruments, play for the younger kids, and the rising fourth-graders would choose three of the instruments that most appealed to them. They would then be assigned accordingly by the music teachers, depending on the numbers and concentration of interest. Mina remembers that she had immediately been attracted to the saxophone. It was a unique shape, and the older student who played it had this amazing, jazzy tone that is ingrained in Mina’s mind to this day. Sure there were trumpets that were loud and bright and flutes that were elegant and sleek, but there was something about that curve, that gleam of the saxophone that had inevitably drawn Mina closer and closer until she had almost begged her parents to buy her one. They had obliged and young Mina got her wish, but soon her mother had to transfer jobs and she was sent from the States off to South Korea where she would spend the rest of her schooling time.

Anyway.

As Mina is someone who has been with music from a young age, her ears rarely fail her. Tone, timbre, and all those other fun things are very important things to Mina, and she knows how important reeds are when trying to create the perfect blend of round and smooth. This is why she shops for her own reeds; this particular music store does not have a saxophone specialist, just someone who is able to fix saxophones when parts go missing. Mina takes it upon herself to try all different reeds and to experiment, striving to find that golden last 15% to her setup that would make her playing complete.

She was definitely surprised when she encountered Tzuyu in the store last night, but only in the ‘I didn’t see you there’ kind of way. Tzuyu is every bit as nitpicky as herself when it comes to tone and playing feel, especially as a reed instrument player, so Mina really isn’t so shocked to discover Tzuyu shopping for her own reeds as well. She’s mildly impressed when Tzuyu takes her advice about the Légère reeds though, because those are kind of high-up and no one around here really plays those- but to be fair, no one around here plays their reed instruments as much as Mina or Tzuyu do.

Her line floats about in the water and she vaguely wonders if fishing is really part of Tzuyu’s secret to being a better musician. She hasn’t actually heard Tzuyu play alone though; the few times she’s passed the girl practicing alone in the band room, she always conveniently seems to make a mistake which results in a loud SQUEEEAAAK and a binder unceremoniously thrown at her head by angry bypassers.

She chuckles briefly at the thought. It isn’t that she dislikes Tzuyu- quite the opposite, actually. Something about Tzuyu’s personality resonates with her. Tzuyu could easily pass as her little sister when she thinks about it, with their unconcerned and blunt personalities and love for music. Momo has even commented at one point that they kind of have the same ‘auras’ (whatever that means) so Mina thinks that’s probably a sign that they’re somewhat similar.

The fishers around her are all looking to the right in a shocked manner, so Mina looks too to see what all the fuss is about. She groans when she realizes what’s going on; Nayeon and Jihyo have capsized and GodJihyo is thoroughly displeased, flailing about mightily in the water while letting out some of the loudest shouts Mina’s ever heard from the girl. Nayeon is no better, flailing and making a scene as well with an equally shrill voice. Jeongyeon and Dahyun are trying to keep them afloat by having them cling to Dahyun’s paddle while Jeongyeon tries to haul them aboard. They’re on the verge of capsizing as well.

Mina pulls her pineapple-print bucket hat lower over her eyes and prays no one makes the link between her relation with them. She’s suddenly thankful that there were only single-seat kayaks left.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sometimes Sana feels her life is just a series of misunderstandings.

She isn’t stupid- well, in some aspects. She’s on the higher end of the social pyramid, but that doesn’t really mean much to her. She wouldn’t ever bully someone like Chaeyoung just because Chaeyoung is smart, quieter than most, and wears glasses. She wouldn’t ever bully anyone. It just isn’t in her nature.

Chaeyoung, bless her heart, must’ve caught on to this fact since she’s currently sitting across Sana in a coffee shop nursing a Caffè Latte between her hands, listening to the older girl vent her frustrations about her first-chair dilemma.

“… and I’ve known this entire time that he doesn’t like me, but don’t you think this is too much? I mean come on, even professional musicians aren't this petty, it’s just a chair for crying out loud!”

“So would you be willing to give it up, since it’s ‘just a chair’?” Chaeyoung quotes placidly, gazing at Sana through her lenses.

Sana shoots her a withering glare. “NO. Absolutely not! My love life is on the line here, don’t you understand??” She practically barks, shaking both Chaeyoung’s caffè latte and her caramel frappuccino.

Chaeyoung blinks. “Love life?”

Sana sighs dramatically. “I need to have that duet with-“

_Wait._

Sana almost slaps herself. Oh dear. How could she forget that sitting across from her is none other than Tzuyu’s best friend, the one who probably wouldn’t even hesitate to tell Tzuyu anything Sana tells her now? Sana slumps down in her seat, visibly deflated.

_How careless._

Chaeyoung is still waiting expectantly and Sana shoots her an awkward smile in a last-ditch attempt to cover her tracks. “Uhhh- with Momo!”

_What._

Chaeyoung raises a brow. “Momo?”

_Why._

Sana feels like a complete idiot but she forges on. “Yeah- Momo said she's really impressed with my flute playing, you see, and I have to keep my chair if I want to maintain my good image!” She chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck.

_I wouldn’t date Momo if she were the last lesbian on earth._

Well that’s a little far-fetched- Momo _is_ pretty cute, and she has this amazing set of abs (Sana’s seen them plenty in the locker room) _and_ she has a really pretty smile, but Momo doesn’t seem very interested in flute-playing and she probably doesn’t even know who Sana is (they’ve never really crossed paths) so she’s more or less out of the picture at this point. Luckily or unluckily, Tzuyu isn’t. They face each other every time they have a full band class because of the seating arrangements- Tzuyu must know who she is, or recognize her at the very least.

Chaeyoung seems to accept her rat’s ass explanation though, to Sana’s immense relief, and she looks out the window thoughtfully. “Well you have to play at the audition too right? Have you picked a song yet?”

Sana opens her mouth and shuts it. “Ahh… no.” She finishes lamely, casting an innocent aegyo-filled look to a less-than-impressed Chaeyoung.

Chaeyoung frowns at her. “Unnie, you should’ve started practicing the day you knew there would be this kind of event going on! That jerk probably already has two days under his belt if not more, since he’s anticipated this whole thing from the start. Do you have anything in mind?”

Sana is losing steam quickly now. She shakes her head and looks at her junior pleadingly.

“Help me.”

Chaeyoung leans forward and rests her chin on her fist. “Hm. Well, if you really want to shut this topic down for once and for all, you need to play something really out there. Something no one in this school has ever played. At a level no one in this school’s ever seen from a high school flute player.” She says ponderously.

Sana looks up. “Like what?”

Chaeyoung thinks for a moment more. Sana watches her hopefully. Chaeyoung sips her coffee and finally looks up with a weighed stare and a glint in her eyes.

“Sana unnie, how badly do you want to keep your chair?”

The older girl looks up. “Do you have a plan?” She asks, hope shining in her eyes as she lunges across the small table to clasp Chaeyoung’s small hands between her own small hands.

Chaeyoung looks back at her gravely. “Do you trust me, unnie?” She asks solemnly.

Sana nods with all her best, baby hairs falling free from her ponytail and into her eyes.

“I have a plan. But you’re going to have to stick with me.”

Sana nods again fervently. “I can stick with you!”

Chaeyoung smiles devilishly. Sana sees the glint in her eyes and while she's feeling a little apprehensive, she knows she’s found the right person.

“Then let’s get to work.”


	5. a jubilant overture

[A Jubilant Overture - Alfred Reed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpa3BufacI4)

_________________________________________

 

No one has seen Sana for days.

It’s strange; Sana is the social type who is always going off to hang out with friends or surrounding herself in the chaos that is high school, but peculiarly enough, the blonde flute player hasn’t been spotted for days. Some have caught brief glimpses of her in class but outside of that, nothing.

But there’s a crowd in the auditorium during lunch today (which never happens), and Tzuyu can only guess what kind of shenanigans are going on in there. She eyes the flock of people heading over with mild disinterest, wondering what all the fuss is about, until Chaeyoung stops in front of her and tells her to get up. 

“Come on, we’re going to be late.”

Tzuyu blinks at her but gets up nonetheless. “Late for what?”

“Didn’t you hear? Second-chair flute guy challenged Sana for her seat and now it’s an open audition; there are over five people lined up for a shot at that chair.”

Tzuyu is surprised. She hasn’t caught wind of any of this, but she guesses she should’ve known; why else would Minatozaki Sana disappear from the face of the earth for such a long time? Something is definitely cooking.

The auditorium is already packed when they get there; the duo has to squeeze in the back and head up to the back seats that overlook the entire auditorium. Tzuyu shifts next to Chaeyoung. “What’s going on?” She asks again as she tries to get comfortable in her red plush seat.

Chaeyoung shushes her and points to the stage where the conductor and three other members of the Music Department are seated in a row. The cocky boy from before already has his flute and music out in front of him, ready to play. He looks confident- too confident for anyone’s liking. There are a handful of other ambitious flute players including some underclassmen (Chaeyoung scoffs; word of the audition must’ve implied that the unspoken band hierarchy was disintegrating.) The conductor and the others are getting situated in their seats at the table while the flute players set up on the side of the stage.

Sana walks the back door in a few minutes later, the latest of all the auditioners today, and her presence brings a hush over the room. It _is_ the first time anyone’s seen her in a while anyway, and she actually seems normal- she's smiling and greeting her classmates all while making her way through the seats of the large room to the stage. It’s no secret that she’s attracting copious amounts of attention; everyone is curious to see how the current first-chair flute would be reacting on this day in a situation like this. But she seems fine- and that’s precisely what is disturbing to the other auditioners. Sana is cool, confident, and she looks like this is just a mild disturbance in her otherwise perfectly fabulous life. It’s kind of funny since Chaeyoung is probably the only one here who knows how the girl really feels, but the smaller girl stays where she is at the back, out of sight and out of mind.

Sana passes by the other contenders and takes a seat by the edge of the stage, taking her time to set up her flute. The others were warming up but now they’re mostly just watching Sana, who simply plays a quick scale after throwing her flute together and deems herself ‘warmed.’

The conductor clears his throat. “Alright then, since everyone is here, why don’t we get started?”

The underclassmen go first as per high school hierarchy and while they’re talented, they’re still not first-chair standard, so it quickly becomes clear that this is a competition between the two best seniors- Sana and her unfriendly neighbor.

The others finish quickly enough, with their renditions of Bach’s minuets and pop songs. Sana’s competitor steps up first since he’s feeling all too confident in himself, and he introduces himself grandly.

The music teacher finally look up. “What will you be playing for us today?”

He grins. “I’ll be playing Carmen’s _Fantasy_.”

There’s a hushed gasp across the auditorium, particularly among the band kids and other flutists because they know the level of this kind of piece. It’s an absolute staple of flute music- every serious flutist will have played it at least once in their high school years and it’s fairly rare for anyone in a high school to be playing such a piece although it _has_ happened a couple times before.

Chaeyoung is actually a little impressed. “He’s really going for it, huh?”

Tzuyu nods. “Yeah. I wonder how he’ll play.” She says absentmindedly, fidgeting with the hems of her long-sleeve shirt.

He plays well- he plays _really_ well, especially compared to the rest of the auditioners who seem lackluster now in comparison. Everyone is quiet when he plays and even the conductor seems surprised at his music selection. It’s a beautiful blend of skill, technique, breath, and everything a good flute player should have under his belt at an advanced high school level. It’s something else, that’s for sure, and it brings him tremendous applause when he’s done.

But Sana is next and Sana’s got a few tricks up her sleeve today.

She takes her spot in the limelight and the room is instantly quiet, eager to see what the seemingly stupid girl could possibly do to top the previous performance.

Well, she destroys it.

If his song was grand hers is grander- she plays Taffanel’s _Mignon Fantasie_ with zero flaws, perfect execution, dynamics, tempo, articulation, emotion, everything and anything that is musical and perfect and the rooms holds still as she plays- when she finishes however many minutes later, everyone is stunned silent.

Tzuyu stares at the stage slackjawed, Chaeyoung of similar expression. “ _When I’d told her to play Taffanel, I didn’t think she'd take it this far.”_ The shorter girl thinks to herself, thoroughly impressed with Sana’s apparent show of capability.

Tzuyu is having other thoughts. _“Oh my God.”_

Momo breaks the silence- she screeches from somewhere in the crowded room “YASSS SANA YOU GO GURL KILLEM,” (Momo is known to have beef with the arrogant second-chair flutist; she and Sana are not acquainted enough to be considered friends but Momo’s looked forward to that boy’s demise for a long time now- when she heard about the auditions, she was Team Sana all the way) and that’s all it takes for the stunned crowd to leap to their feet screaming, waving their arms, chanting _SANA SANA SANA_ over and over. 

The conductor is knocked back to his senses by the sheer volume of cheers for the smiling girl on stage, and he leaps to his feet with renewed vigor. “SANA IS THE WINNER OF THIS COMPETITION.” He yells with a flourish, throwing his notebook somewhere off in the auditorium. The room becomes even more chaotic, if possible. The rest of the judges are clapping profusely, the students are going wild, and Sana is just smiling and waving prettily with her flute in hand through this whole thing.

Chaeyoung eventually comes to her senses as well and she claps enthusiastically. Tzuyu on the other hand, continues to sit there shellshocked.

_Who knew that airhead actually had it in her?_

Somewhere amidst the screams, Chaeyoung vaguely hears a female voice that sounds suspiciously like Im Nayeon shout “SUCK MY DICK” to Sana’s opponent (she never passes up opportunities to flame people), who glowers angrily and leaves the auditorium by himself (but everyone’s too busy adoring Sana to care) and the whole thing is a fantastic turnaround for Minatozaki Sana, who is one of the few band students who can confidently say that she loses no shred of her immense popularity by playing the flute and participating in band class.

Chaeyoung finds herself wishing she could be like the older girl in that aspect.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“You ready for this?”

Mina swings into the passenger seat of Momo’s car. “Of course I am.”

Momo chuckles and once Mina is strapped safely in her seat, they take off towards the library which is about a fifteen minute drive from Mina’s house. Mina’s saxophone is tucked in the trunk of Momo’s Jeep Wrangler (why does everyone drive a Jeep Wrangler?) and Momo’s stick bag is somewhere in the backseat. They have a concert in the library today; it’s a smaller ensemble they’ve brought today since their conductor selected only a couple people to play, and Mina is one of three saxophone players for today’s show. She and her section mates will be sitting with Tzuyu and the tenor/barry sax players today, completing the small reed section for today’s performance.

The song selection is jazzy today; Mina mulls over the setlist and it’s totally up her alley. They’re playing for the book signing event going on in the library today, where there should be plenty of old people in attendance and cookies and coffee. It should be fun- too bad Mina will be occupied for the majority of it.

Momo seems to read her mind. “Hopefully they’ll save some cookies for us.” She says over the vibey melody flowing through her car speakers. Mina hums her agreement as she nods along to the music. Momo’s always had the best mixes on her Spotify playlists.

“Did you eat this morning?” She asks the older girl, who chuckles and shakes her head as if Mina had asked her the stupidest question.

“Of course I did Mina. What else would I be doing in the morning?”

Mina rolls her eyes at her best friend; she must’ve forgotten in that moment that Momo is one of the biggest pigs she knows. “Excuse me for being a concerned citizen.” She huffs indignantly. The song changes to a Lauv song, one of Mina’s favorite artists, and she hums along to the mellow beat. 

Momo unconsciously taps her fingers to the song as she wrinkles her brow at Mina. “What did you eat this morning? Are you hungry?”

Mina sighs melodramatically. “I had the last of my toast. And what was left of my yogurt after Jihyo and Nayeon came through and basically demolished my groceries.” She says with the most sass and flourish Momo could ever elicit from her.

Momo winces sympathetically. “I’m sorry bud.”

Mina lets her head roll back against the headrest as her gaze falls to the passing scenery outside. “It’s fine.”

“Do you want to stop and grab something? My treat.”

Mina is tempted but she looks at the time on her phone screen and is deterred. “Nah, maybe next time. Thanks though, Mo.”

Momo shrugs and flicks on a turn signal. “Alright then.”

They pull up to the library soon after and they both tumble out after Momo kills the engine- well, Mina tumbles out. She slept late last night playing games so she’s not exactly in good shape right now. Momo gets out of her car like a model though, and Mina’s derpiness only makes Momo look all the cooler.

No one seems to notice Mina’s horrid condition, thankfully- Dahyun still has hearts in her eyes as they pass her in notice, enthusiastically greeting her awesome Mina sunbae and Momo unnie as she points them in the direction of their setup room. Momo goes in first and claims a table to dump her stuff on while Mina places her saxophone case next to Momo’s bag and begins to set up.

It’s pretty relaxed in the spacious but intimate room and Momo eventually wanders off to chat with some of the other kids. It’s also a pretty small group- Nayeon is estimated to arrive soon with her tuba, and Jeongyeon on the trombone should complete the mini low-brass section. Momo is playing a drum set today with an underclassmen percussionist to fill in on triangle and the like. Tzuyu is the only clarinetist and Sana is the only flutist; there isn’t much space for flute players in jazz ensembles and Sana had been the obvious choice after she firmly solidified her position as first chair. There also isn’t much need for clarinets in today’s song selection so Tzuyu is the only one from her section present as well. Mina nods a greeting to Im Jaebum in the other corner, who is tuning his guitar, and to Brian who is playing the upright bass today.

Brian makes his way over with a smile. “Hey Mina.”

“Hi.” She responds simply, not looking up from her reed selection for today.

Brian peers over her shoulder. “Reeds?” He asks curiously, eyes scanning over the wide assortment Mina keeps in the depths of her saxophone case at all times.

“Yup.” She hums as she finally makes her choice. She picks a Vandoren V16, an unfiled reed with more resistance that would allow her to produce a dark, rich sound, appropriate for today’s songs. It well suits the smooth jazz songs that don’t have much in terms of flashy solos, but instead call for more soulful, toned playing.

Brian doesn’t know shit about reeds but at least he doesn’t make an ass of himself when he talks to Mina about these things and for that, she allows him to keep himself around. “Cool. You excited for today?” He asks as she makes her careful selection

He’s interrupted- the door swings opens and Sana prances in. “Good morning everyone!” She greets cheerfully, her flute case swinging haphazardly in her left hand and her baby blue Kate Spade tote in her right. Mina spares the flutist a tight smile before tucking her reed between her lips. Dahyun waves at the flute player who hops over to chat and greets everyone she passes on her way.

Brian looks back at her expectantly and she supposes she should say something. “Yeah. I love jazz, so today should be a lot of fun.”

Her answer satisfies him and he smiles. “Me too. My dad’s played in a jazz band since college and they’re always having these awesome improv sessions. I really look up to their sax player and pianist- they’re both incredibly intelligent and such amazing musicians.” He replies, tucking his hands in his pockets as he replies earnestly.

“That’s really cool.” Mina says through her reed. “So you must be really into jazz.”

He grins a little sheepishly. “I didn’t like jazz until high school, actually. My dad was really excited when I started getting into it though, and I picked up the upright bass from one of his close friends from school who teaches jazz in the States.”

“Oh yeah? Where does he live?” Mina asks as she carefully fixes her reed to her mouthpiece with her ligament.

“He currently teaches Jazz Studies at Butler School of Music in Austin Texas.” Brian says. “It’s kind of hot down there but it’s a good time and he’s really liking it there.”

Mina smiles briefly. “I bet. I was born there.”

Brian looks surprised. “Really? No way!” He looks excited at having found common ground. Mina finally finds her neck strap in her mess of a case.

“Yeah. I lived there for a bit before moving to Japan.”

Brian tilts his head. “How old were you when you moved?”

“Thirteen. I lived in Japan for two years before coming here.”

He looks impressed for some reason. “That’s so cool. You’ve got so much diversity in your roots.” He says, and he looks like he wants to say more but he’s interrupted.

“Brian!” One of the guys playing trombone waves at him from across the room. Brian waves a hand before turning back to Mina. 

“I gotta go run over some measures with Junior. I’ll talk to you later?” He says with a hopeful smile.

“Sure. See you later.”

He loops off to his waiting classmate and Mina turns back to her own business. A few feet away from her, Momo and Jackson are bickering about something stupid.

“Stephan Curry could totally kick your ass in basketball!”

“Oh yeah? Well that weirdo from YouTube could totally kick your ass in dancing!”

“What weirdo??”

Jackson splutters a little. “You know- you know! That one in the dancing studio with green hair?”

Momo looks genuinely confused. “Don’t you know a name?”

Jackson shakes his head. “A-Anyway! There are a lot of people who are better dancers than you! I bet even Mina is better than you!” He points a ringed finger at Mina’s back and both heads turn to the unwitting saxophonist (who also happens to be an excellent ballerina.)

Mina pretends not to notice them. Momo huffs and crosses her arms. 

“Okay that might be true, but Mina’s better at most things than most people. Can’t you think of a better example instead of Mina and ‘that weirdo from the internet’??”

Mina rolls her eyes at the stupidity of it all and turns back to her saxophone. While she’s running a soft cloth over the bell of her horn, Tzuyu and Chaeyoung quietly enter the warmup room together. Tzuyu already has the body of her instrument set up and she trails behind Chaeyoung, who only hold a folder of sheet music today.

Sana is first to notice the duo and she flounces over enthusiastically. “Chaeyoung! Did you see me play at the audition??” She practically squeals as she attaches herself to the smaller girl.

Chaeyoung tries to pry Sana’s hands off her wrists. “Yeah, you were great.” She replies calmly but happily, genuinely glad for the older girl’s success. Sana continues to blab on- something about how much of a genius Chaeyoung is. In any case, everyone’s glad that Sana emerged triumphant and Sana herself is more than delighted at her showmanship.

_No one likes the other guy anyway._

Tzuyu is quiet through the entire exchange. Sana smiles blindingly at both of them. “Are you guys ready for today?” She finally addresses Tzuyu as well, giving Chaeyoung her personal space back.

Tzuyu nods silently. Chaeyoung shifts her folder in her hands. “Yeah. What about you unnie?” The shortest of them asks, and both of them gaze at Sana with pure, innocent eyes. Sana almost coos at the sight but refrains from pinching any cheeks.

_These kids are adorable._

Sana waves a hand about. “I’m just here for show, besides that one song. I don’t have any other grand parts today though- it’s all jazz, after all.”

Chaeyoung is more perceptive than Tzuyu or the idiotic Sana could ever discover (not that either of them know that though). “Oh, Tzuyu also doesn’t have any major parts today. Maybe you two will be sitting next to each other.”

Tzuyu just stares at Sana with wide unblinking eyes and Sana looks thoughtful. “True. We’ll find out soon I guess, I’m going to go and set up now. I’ll talk to you later Chaeyoung, good luck with your piano solo!”

She shoots them another smile and a wink for Tzuyu before sauntering off to where Dahyun is to set up her flute. Tzuyu is stunned still. Chaeyoung rolls her eyes at what’s clearly going on and tugs at her taller friend’s arm.

“Come on Tzu, finish setting up and get your music out before the conductor gets here.” She says, and the duo trots off to the nearby grand piano so Tzuyu can tune her clarinet.

The door slams open with a bang some time later and everyone is scared shitless. Jihyo stands in the doorway, domineering with a baton and a couple scores. “Hey losers.” She greets them all as she comes in.

Mina and Momo exchange glances. “Um, Jihyo? Why are you here?” Momo breaches carefully.

_Jihyo plays the French horn and she certainly wasn’t supposed to be coming today. What is she doing?_

Jihyo straightens up and raises her voice. “Listen up pansies! I got an email last night from our conductor dearest who seems to have consumed some bad cupcakes- long story short, he got food poisoning and I’m here to pose as conductor for today’s show.” Jihyo strides around and people part for her like Moses and the red sea. “I’m hungry and we’re on in twenty- I’m going to grab some cookies. You all better be set up and warmed up by the time I’m back!” She glares at them before slamming the door behind her, undoubtedly going straight for the library’s supply of cookies and coffee.

Mina laments silently to herself and her grumbling stomach.

Momo shivers slightly. “She’s kind of scary.” She says, looking warily at where Jihyo had been standing. Jackson nods his agreement. Mina casts one last silent glance at the door before clipping her saxophone to her neck strap.

Jeongyeon, who had walked in just in time for Jihyo’s declaration, seems a little embarrassed. “You don’t think it could’ve been the cupcakes we gave him right?” She says to a nearby Nayeon who shrugs.

“No way. That’s ridiculous. Who would actually eat cupcakes that have been sitting on your counter for a month?”

“Did he know that though?”

“I mean, he should know by now. I hope.”

Jeongyeon doesn’t seem fully convinced but accepts the explanation with a grain of salt, and Mina feels shivers run down her spine.

_Oh my God._

Dahyun finally enters the room from her job guiding people to the room and she starts to warmup with some really really soulful jazz scales- a little _too_ soulful- and soon everyone in the room is playing super immersive, soulful jazz scales in warmup as well. Momo doesn’t have an instrument to blow into, so she comes over from arguing with Jackson and says something to distract Mina from her warmup scales. They spend some time mulling over the meaning of ground fertilizer and soil acidity while waiting for this whole thing to start and after a few minutes, Mina’s seriously considering starting a garden or something. Somewhere in the room, she distantly hears Sana playing a soft rendition of ‘Sunny’, a flute jazz solo from Herbie Mann that sounds absolutely divine and Tzuyu’s clarinet playing the beginning legendary clarinet part from ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ with a soaring glide note that could move something in even the most stoic human. Chaeyoung is apparently the pianist for today- she plays simple but pleasing improv that aligns with their jazzy theme of today. It would all sound nicer if they played together though, Mina thinks to herself, but soon enough it’s time to start and they all shuffle to their seats by the book signing.

“You all better not mess this up.” Jihyo glares at them with her large eyes and they all nod fervently.

It goes swimmingly- they play 125th Street Blues, Question of Hope and Memphis Underground (which Sana kills) and they even have Brian, Chaeyoung, and Momo play Blue and Sentimental together (Chaeyoung’s piano playing is on another level- Mina can’t help but wonder a little bit about the small girl she’s never really seen before who plays jazz piano likes it’s second nature). After those and a couple other songs, the whole thing is over at about 6:00pm and the library runs out of cookies and coffee, so Mina and Momo decide to have dinner together.

“Bye you two.” Nayeon waves as they make their way out, Mina’s saxophone tightly in her grip and Momo swinging her stick bag by the strings.

“See you in school.” Mina calls back and Momo waves as they walk out. They head to a small diner in the corner of town that Momo found one day wandering lost around the neighborhood and sit down. Momo orders for both of them and they finally recline into the booth seats after a long day of playing, improvising, and bearing the weight of Jihyo’s threats.

“Say,” Mina comments at one point, sipping at her cup of tea. “Do you know Chaeyoung?”

Momo tilts her head curiously. “Son Chaeyoung? Yeah, I’ve seen her in my gym class. What about her?”

Mina takes a moment before proceeding with her inquiries. “Doesn’t she play the oboe?”

Momo takes a moment herself to ponder the issue. “Yes, but I guess she plays piano as well. She’s really quiet, I haven’t gotten to know her well.”

Mina processes this information and they sit in silence for a bit. 

“Do you think she’s single?”

“What??”

Momo almost chokes at the question but Mina doesn’t flinch.

“Wh-Why are you wondering now? Shouldn’t you ask her yourself?”

Mina shrugs carelessly. “She’s kind of cute, don’t you think?” She asks, curious for her best friend’s opinion.

Momo looks at her incredulously. “Well, I guess. I haven’t looked closely enough- she’s always got these huge glasses on her face that makes it hard to tell objectively- and frankly, I’ve only really seen her in gym. Are you interested or something?”

Her companion shrugs and looks listlessly out the window of the yellow-lit diner. “You’re changing the subject. I was just curious. She’s always hanging around Tzuyu, so I was wondering if they’re together or something.”

Momo casts a dubious glance but lets it drop. “I wouldn’t know Minari. Maybe you should ask Tzuyu.”

_That’s a great idea._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Tzuyu!”

The taller girl does a double take at Myoui Mina striding down the hallway towards her. There are whispers- Mina’s fangirls are no joke, and Tzuyu almost sweats at the sheer number of looks they’re receiving as the older girl makes her way down the hall to where she’s standing.

Tzuyu gulps quietly and tries to focus on putting her things away in her locker. Tries to pretend like she hasn’t heard Mina’s calls of her name.

“Tzuyu- hey, Tzuyu! I’ve been calling your name for the past minute, are you alright?”

Mina is standing by her locker now, blatantly staring at her. Tzuyu stares back. “I’m feeling fine. Good afternoon unnie.”

Mina doesn’t skip a beat. “Tzuyu, do you have a girlfriend?”

Tzuyu suddenly sees Sana in her periphery eyeing them but she’s too surprised at the sudden question to think much about it. “What?”

“Are you dating someone, Tzuyu?” Mina asks again, tapping her foot anxiously. She looks at Tzuyu imploringly.

The taller girl is clearly flustered. “Uhh, no. Not at the moment.” She finally brings herself to answer, fiddling nervously with the corners of the notebooks in her hands. Mina is a cool upperclassman that many look up to (and she has a lot in common with Tzuyu) but Tzuyu thinks they have _too_ much in common- enough to the point where they could probably pass as siblings and no one would think twice. _(TWICE!)_

Mina seems satisfied with her answer. Minatozaki Sana has been inching closer and closer by the second. Tzuyu looks at the other senior briefly before returning her gaze back to Mina. “Why are you asking, unnie?”

Mina suddenly beams, the most delighted Tzuyu thinks she’s ever seen her. “Because if you’re not dating Chaeyoung, she must be single as well!”

Tzuyu feels her jaw drop. 

“Chaeyoung? My Chaeyoung?” She asks again to clarify.

Mina frowns. “I thought you said you weren’t dating. Why is she ‘your’ Chaeyoung?”

Tzuyu almost chokes on her own spit “I’m not- we’re not- it isn’t- we’re not dating! I was just a bit surprised, that’s all.” She manages to get out, feeling a blush creeping up her cheeks.

Mina tilts her head curiously. “Why are you so surprised? I was just asking.” She says innocently, reaching out a hand to feel Tzuyu’s forehead. “Are you feeling well? You look totally shook.”

Tzuyu blinks rapidly as she tries to piece together a coherent response. “It’s just- unnie, you like Chaeyoung?” She asks again, still not believing what she’s hearing.

Sana finally inches close enough to be considered within speaking proximity. “Chaeyoung is actually all kinds of cool and mature. You should really give her more credit, you guys.” She says, casually looping an arm around Mina’s shoulders (since when were they friends??) but Tzuyu still jumps slightly at the other girl’s sudden appearance.

_Lunch just ended and here she is, loser underclassman sophomore talking to two of the coolest seniors in school. Who knew?_

Tzuyu swallows as she feels the weight of her fellow schoolmates’ stares on her back. Mina stares at Sana weirdly, who just wears a spectacular smile on her face that practically gleams as she keeps her arm around Mina’s slim shoulders.

“Mina-chan, you’re so skinny. You should eat more.” Sana comments after the awkward silence following her appearance, poking at Mina’s ribcage. The other Japanese girl squawks and smacks Sana’s hand away.

“Stop that!”

A gleam suddenly appears in Sana’s eyes (that’s never good) and she takes her arm away from Mina’s shoulders. Mina blinks curiously at the other girl who suddenly has a predatory look in her eyes.

“Are you by any chance, ticklish?”

Sana’s hands go straight for Mina’s sides not a moment after, and the normally cool and composed girl leaps five feet in the air screaming. “OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING ASDFGHJKL STAHP STAHP PLEASE I BEG YOU AHAHAHA LORD JESUS HAVE MERCY ON ME SOMEONE PLEASE GET THIS HEATHEN OFF ME-“

Sana stops after a couple minutes when she’s satisfied and Mina is keeled over on the ground, chest heaving for breath and face completely red. Tzuyu stands by awkwardly.

“Um, Mina unnie? Are you alright?”

She extends a hesitant hand to the floored senior who haggardly accepts, and Mina is pulled to her feet. She casts Sana a glare before smoothing out her rumpled black t-shirt and ripped jeans. 

“Who even are you?” She squints at Sana who only beams brightly at her.

“I’m Sana. I don’t think we’ve ever formally met.” The flutist extends her right hand to Mina, who looks at it hesitantly before shaking it, despite her suspicions. Her suspicious prove correct-  Sana’s other hand instantly sneaks to Mina’s ribcage but this time Mina is prepared; she smacks Sana’s hand away with the speed of light, readily impressing both Tzuyu and Sana, who snatches her hand back after the unexpected retaliation. Sana smiles at Mina guiltily as Mina glares at her.

“Well played Mina-chan, well played.” Sana says, impressed as she brings her hands back to her sides. Mina just frowns at her but turns back to Tzuyu who obviously has something to say.

“So you like Chaeyoung, Mina unnie?”

Mina shakes her head lightly, although she looks like she’s thinking about something. “No, I wouldn’t say that. I don’t really know her well and I saw her at the library concert last weekend. She plays piano really well and I hadn’t seen her before. I was curious, that’s all.” She explains, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know you guys are friends so I thought I’d ask you first.”

Sana tilts her head to look questioningly at Mina. “Mina-chan, aren’t you dating Momo?”

Mina blinks at her. “Momo? Hirai Momo?”

Tzuyu also turns to look at the other senior. “Oh yeah. You guys are always together.”

Mina shakes her head. “No, I’m not dating Momo.” She says, looking with round eyes at her two companions.

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Oh. Okay then. Just wondering.” Sana finally says and they break out of their weird little trance. “You guys are just always together so we all just kind of assumed. Sorry, Mina-chan.”

Mina shrugs it off like it’s no big deal that apparently everyone in the school thinks she’s dating Hirai Momo. “No problem. We’re best friends, but we’re not keen on dating each other.” She explains with a small chuckle.

Tzuyu looks on quietly. _“They’re both so relaxed about everything. Is this what it’s like to be a senior?”_

Both girls’ attention is suddenly brought back to Tzuyu. Mina seems to remember something. “Oh Tzuyu, do you know Sana?” She asks, gesturing to the older girl.

Sana waves at her and grins brightly. 

Tzuyu stares at the weird senior who stares at her during band class and shakes her head. “We haven’t officially met.”

“Oh alright then. Well Tzuyu, this is Minatozaki Sana. Sana, this is Chou Tzuyu.” Mina takes it upon herself to introduce them and Sana sticks out her hand for Tzuyu to shake. Tzuyu eyes her warily, remembering what happened to Mina a few moments earlier, but to her good graces, Sana doesn’t attempt to tickle her. (She isn’t ticklish anyway; maybe Sana's picked up on that already.)

“Didn’t you guys just meet too?” She asks the two after safely completing a handshake with Minatozaki Sana.

“Yup.” They say in unison, obviously not making much of it. Tzuyu shrugs.

_Whatever floats their boats then._

“So, Chaeyoung huh?” Sana nudges Mina with her shoulder and a teasing grin. “She’s pretty cute, no?”

Mina shrugs thoughtfully, seeming to not mind Tzuyu’s presence and position as Chaeyoung’s best friend. “It’s not like that. I guess she’s gone to this school this whole time and I haven’t really noticed.”

Tzuyu feels her heart ache a bit for her tiny friend at that remark.

_Ouch. Poor Chaeng._

“She’s pretty cute though.” Mina continues to muse. Sana nods her head in overly-enthusiastic agreement for some reason _(maybe she’s excited about her new friend and just wants to support Mina? Who knows. Maybe she knows Chaeyoung? Who knows. But possibly. Quite possibly.)_

Tzuyu’s mood instantly turns around at that and she does internal fist pumps and flips for her friend.

_Chingoo Chaeng, fighting!_


	6. I'll paint the picture, let me set the scene

Chaeyoung arrives to chem class late for the first time.

“S-Sorry I’m late.” She bows hastily to the teacher and makes her way to her seat, head down all the way. All eyes in the class are on her- some curious, some condescending, some detached. Chaeyoung walks as fast as she can and sits down, taking out some school supplies.

It seems she’s just in time for the start of the lab. Today they’re doing another one of those dreadful titration labs, a revelation at which the entire class (except Chaeyoung) groans at. Chaeyoung actually doesn’t mind that much. She always works alone, and she’s gotten surprisingly good at these kinds of labs since she’s had so much practice and no one to interfere with her learning.

Until today, it seems.

As everyone fans off into their normal lab groups, Chaeyoung heads alone to the most isolated lab station in the room where there is a buret and Erlenmeyer flask waiting. Upon arrival, she scans the lab sheet and its directions carefully before she starts, taking care to underline the important information, and it’s all fine and good until a shadow looms over her worksheet.

“Hey. Can I work with you?”

Chaeyoung almost screams at the unexpected interruption. Myoui Mina stands over her curiously, watching her have a mini heart attack as she jolts around. Mina is curious. She just thought she would approach the lone girl since every other lab station was relatively crowded, which didn’t help Mina’s already under-par Korean comprehension skills. (And after her conversations with Momo and Tzuyu, she feels a green light.)

Chaeyoung obviously thinks that Mina doesn’t know her. Mina smiles to herself. She most certainly knows Chaeyoung- well, she knows of her anyway. It would be a stretch to say they actually know each other since Mina is pretty sure they’ve never actually had a conversation, but someone as cute as Chaeyoung is definitely not going to go unnoticed by Mina. Everything is going according to plan- except Chaeyoung looks like she’s going to shit her pants, (a fact that Mina cheerfully ignores) and Mina takes a seat.

“So what do we do first?”

Chaeyoung jumps at the question and fumbles through her lab notebook. “Um, we need to make an acidic solution.” She mumbles, pushing her round glasses up the bridge of her nose.

“A what?”

“An acidic solution?”

It’s clear Mina isn’t familiar with the Korean terminology, so Chaeyoung points to the picture in her lab manual. “We need to make the thing pink.” She tries to translate into simpler terms.

Mina immediately brightens as she comprehends. “Oh, okay! I’ll get some KHP.” She practically skips up to grab the required materials, leaving Chaeyoung to slump over her notebook defeatedly when she’s sure Mina’s back is turned.

_Lord have mercy on me._

Mina comes back soon after and looks over Chaeyoung’s shoulder. “I need to make a solution right?” She asks, and Chaeyoung nods. To the younger girl’s surprise, Mina starts measuring liquid quantities herself with scary precision, hawk eyes trained on the graduated cylinder as she dripped each drop of KHP into their 250mL beaker. After she’s satisfied with that, she moves onto to the water component, then the buffer, and she’s done surprisingly fast, just as Chaeyoung finishes writing down the first set of molarity calculations.

“I’m done with this one, should I make the titrant next?”

Chaeyoung’s head shoots up from her lab notebook, evidently caught off guard that Mina took it upon herself to do all that. “O-Oh, yeah sure. Let me finish these first calculations and then I’ll help you.” She scrambles to finish the math, furiously punching numbers into her graphing calculator and writing.

“It’s fine! I can make the solutions since you’re already doing the calculations. It’d take me a lot longer to do those, so this is the least I can do right now.” Mina smiles as she proceeds to whip up the second solution just as precisely and quickly as the first one. Chaeyoung is finished with her first set quickly, and Mina has already set up the entire lab: the ring stand and two burets, already with the designated amounts of titrant and titration poured in, the clean beaker holding their solution, and two pairs of lab goggles.

Chaeyoung hardly has time to blink. Mina straps on her lab goggles and looks at the younger girl expectantly. “Are you ready to start?” She asks, holding out the other pair.

Chaeyoung takes them and nods wordlessly, not quite trusting herself to speak. Mina begins to drip stuff into their beaker and she does it with startling accuracy; after a couple drips, she would swirl the beaker to dissipate the pink faster until it became harder and harder to do so, and once the solution flushed baby pink she immediately stopped the drip.

“35.7 milliliters.” She gives the buret readings because Chaeyoung is actually too short to see the thing at eye level, and the short girl wordlessly takes it down. They repeat this in relative silence until the experiment part of the lab is finished and all there’s left to do is calculations.

Mina takes care of the acidic stuff, Chaeyoung puts away the clean equipment like the ring stand and lab goggles. They clean up their lab station until it practically gleams (Mina is not about to lose points for a dirty lab station and Chaeyoung couldn’t agree more) and then they sit at Chaeyoung’s desk at the front of the room to finish up. They’re the first ones to finish the lab part, and Chaeyoung reckons they’ll be first to finish the calculations at this rate too since she’s already got 95% of them lined out in her head.

Mina is obviously struggling to understand what exactly the lab is asking for and knowing her background, Chaeyoung feels something twinge just slightly in her so she scribbles down a couple of equations and pushes them in front of Mina. Mina looks a little surprised.

“The first equation can be used for these,” Chaeyoung lightly marks the designated spots on Mina’s report “because this is what’s involved.” She points at the universal symbols in the equation and Mina’s face automatically lights up in understanding. 

“Ohhh, so that’s what they were asking for.” She punches some numbers into her calculator and holds it up to show Chaeyoung, who nods, impressed with the speed of Mina’s thinking.

The rest of the calculations are done insanely fast, Chaeyoung pointing a couple things out here and there on Mina’s report to correct and simplify, but they’re still done before everyone else and Mina drags her up with her to the front to hand in their reports together.

The teacher peers at them curiously. “Done already, Myoui?”

Mina nods.

The teachers notices Chaeyoung hiding behind Mina’s taller figure. “I hope you’re not taking advantage of your classmates.”

Mina is obviously a little ruffled by the remark, but she keeps her composure and says nothing. Chaeyoung feels bad, because Mina is so nice and so smart and her presence today has kept all the unwanted students from harassing Chaeyoung into giving them answers that she’d normally be forced to give them.

“She didn’t, ma’am. We worked together on the lab and Mina sunbaenim did her own work.”

Mina casts her a surprised and curious side-glance, and Chaeyoung blushes but she doesn’t say any more. The teacher seems surprised that Chaeyoung actually spoke up as well, and accepts both lab reports without further question. 

“Good work then, you two.”

The bells rings soon after and everyone else who hasn’t finished the particularly difficult lab groans when the teacher gets up to address the issue, and Mina turns to say something to Chaeyoung but Chaeyoung has already packed her schoolbag and fled the room.

Mina blinks and frowns a little. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Today is a lessons day. It’s a day where the band is broken up into small subsections (each section meets every other day at different periods) to practice in a smaller group and to allow each individual to receive more close instruction, musically and technically.

Today is section 9’s period 5 lesson class, right after lunch, and the conductor is late. 

Nayeon is first to take action. “Jeongyeon, get me a chair!” Her friend wastes no time to comply and Nayeon is suddenly stuffing a ton of musical scores in the dropout tiles of the ceiling. A few sheets flutter down here and there but Nayeon is too busy to notice, and she’s on a time limit- she doesn’t have the luxury to worry about each and every sheet. Jeongyeon is doing her part in the whole ordeal- she’s collecting all the fallen music sheets and speedily folding them into paper airplanes, which quickly go flying to all the corners of the large room.

Dahyun is next to spring to life. She’s a little vengeful today- last class, she was made to pretty much bust her chops trying to keep up with these horrifically high jazz runs in the latest exercise handed to her. “I’ll show him what it feels like to have numbs cheeks for a week!” She snatches the conductor’s silver trumpet off its stand and runs off to god-knows-where to hide it. She disappears very fast.

Sana comes in late, as usual. “Hey everyone! Are we ready for another awesome day in band??” She greets loudly and cheerfully, eliciting a round of groans from everyone in the room.

Jihyo is the only one who raises her hand yes, but she has a creepy grin on her face and that’s never a good sign. Sana takes no notice though, and she walks in to take her seat without a care in the world.

Chaeyoung enters next- she takes her usual seat next to Tzuyu who is already warming up and quietly begins to assemble her oboe. Mina and Momo come in shortly after, in all their tall, pretty, quiet glory. They look cool as usual- until Nayeon deliberately throws a crumpled wad of paper at Mina’s head, nailing her right on point, and suddenly, the usually composed girl is scowling and throwing things right back at Nayeon. It’s fine between the two of them, but then Jeongyeon gets hit, Momo gets hit, Jihyo somehow gets involved, and suddenly all the upperclassmen are throwing things at each other and screaming.

Dahyun, for once, just sits and watches. She seems tired; hiding the trumpet must’ve taken a lot out of her. Nayeon gets hit by a someone’s binder at one point- she shrieks and falls off her chair, crashing into some underclassmen’s stands and effectively knocking them all over, but she’s right back on her feet throwing more things at her perpetrator, Jennie, who plays the tuba or something. Tzuyu is wise enough to hide in a corner but Chaeyoung had gone to the bathroom a bit ago and has just gotten back- she’ll have to walk through the fray to get to safety.

Chaeyoung stands in the doorway of the chaos and gulps. It’s certainly a sight to behold- the upperclassmen brass players have ganged up on the upperclassmen woodwind players and it’s almost a perfect projection of what world war three should look like. Nayeon is at the forefront of the brass section hurling various projectiles, Sana and Mina from the winds hurling back just as viciously. Chaeyoung spots a safe corner in the far right of the room, but it’s directly diagonal from where she’s standing and to get there, she’d have to cross through the mayhem and try to emerge unharmed.

_Dear lord please help me out._

She takes a tentative step, then two, and it goes to hell from there. The upperclassmen take no notice of the small girl trying to get to her safe zone and they proceed in warring mercilessly. Chaeyoung gets hit in the back of the head twice by crumpled wads of sheet music and she almost trips over Jihyo’s makeshift fort of music stands. She also manages to slip on the little pool of valve oil Jeongyeon has poured on the floor, no doubt meant for one of the other woodwind players to come across (no wonder the girl’s always stealing Jihyo’s) and narrowly dodges a flying ninja star fashioned from drumsticks and mallets from Momo’s side of the room. Another senior, Jisoo who plays the trumpet, snatches a pair of castanets from midair and throws them right back at Momo who screams and hides behind Mina, who catches it with all speed (she’s definitely secretly a ninja or something) and sends it straight to Jihyo’s fort of music stands, effectively rattling the fragile frame. Jihyo and Jeongyeon shriek from behind the shoddy structure and glare at Mina who pays them no mind, and the war rages on.

By the time Chaeyoung has finally made it to the safe zone, Mina’s toppled the fort, Sana’s slipped on all the oil traps, Momo’s broken four mallets throwing them at Nayeon and Jisoo (school mallets of course; she would never use her own for such savergery), Jeongyeon’s run out of ammo, Nayeon is defending herself from Rose (another saxophonist, good friends with Mina) with a binder shield, and everyone is screaming except for the underclassmen (which really is only Tzuyu, Chaeyoung, three other people, and surprisingly, Dahyun, who is sitting complacently in another corner marking up her music. She’s going to have a lot to practice this semester.)

It’s chaotic, it’s loud, it’s every school’s nightmarish hell, and the conductor walks in twenty minutes late with the apology on his tongue fizzled out in terror as he takes in the scene before him.

Tzuyu is first to notice his shocked presence at the door and she stops playing in still surprise. Everyone notices shortly after she does and all the upperclassmen freeze- everyone stares at him wide-eyed as he stares at them wide-eyed and the room is frozen silent for the first time the entire period.

He looks like he’s about to say something, but then the dropout tiles give in the the sheer weight of the music scores Nayeon has stuffed in them and papers fly down and scatter all over the room along with pieces of the broken ceiling tiles, causing Dahyun to snicker quietly from her corner and a surprised squeal from the two people the pieces hit on their way down.

The conductor nearly faints.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The conductor loves them all but something needs to be done about the chaos from the other day (or administration will have his ass) and the entire class finds themselves on cleaning duty in the gym for detention on a Friday afternoon- even those who weren’t involved in the fight.

“This sucks.” Nayeon groans as she tosses some mops from the janitor’s closet behind her to Jeongyeon. They’re cleaning the gym today- it’s dirty from a week’s worth of sweaty high schoolers running amok and causing chaos, and it’s in desperate need of cleaning.

“You started this, remember?” Jeongyeon deadpans, catching the stack of mops with a grunt before passing them back to Sana.

“Me?? Start this mess?? Yoo Jeongyeon! I would never!”

Mina glares at them as she and Momo pass by. “Get to work already guys, the faster we’re done the sooner we can leave.” They all visibly lighten at that and Nayeon starts throwing mops exponentially faster.

Momo chuckles as they walk away. “So where should we start?” She asks her companion, scanning the gym for an appropriate starting point.

Mina shrugs and points to a random corner. Momo carries the mops over and Mina drags the water bucket, and they set to work quietly as soon as they can.

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu have also been forced to attend the cleaning even though they technically had nothing to do with the chaos. They’re in charge of getting all the random shit out of the nets that the school has when softball season comes around. Tzuyu has lowered the large nets that are installed to rise to the ceiling out of the way when unneeded, and they’re both currently crawling in the nets picking out stray badminton birdies that have gotten caught and various ball objects that get thrown up.

Mina and Momo come over, and Momo is the one to notice Tzuyu dragging, her long limbs keep getting caught in the various parts of netting. “Do you guys need help?” Momo asks, and Mina stops to glance over as well.

Tzuyu looks faintly embarrassed. “We’re alright, thanks though.” She says politely, trying to hide a genuinely embarrassed blush.

Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything, even when she catches Mina staring at her from her periphery and Momo trying to make eye contact to say hello (she’s too shy; it’s a shame, really.)

Mina laughs gently at Tzuyu’s predicament. “Are you sure Tzuyu? I can take over for you if you want.”

“Yeah, you can come mop with me instead.” Momo says, smiling at Tzuyu. “I think that might be easier for you.”

(Momo would volunteer to take over for Tzuyu as well, but she’s just as susceptible to getting tangled up as Tzuyu. Plus, Mina’s always been the more agile and graceful one between the two of them.)

Tzuyu feels awkward and embarrassed, but these nets really are giving her a tough time and mopping in an upright position sounds really great for her back right now (she’s always been a stickler for posture). “Alright, if you’re sure. Thank you, Mina unnie.” 

Chaeyoung doesn’t quite register exactly what’s happening until she feels Tzuyu pat her shoulder and a new presence take her spot. She turns, and when she does, she almost jerks and gets all tangled herself.

Mina looks at her and smiles. “There’s so much stuff in these nets, you guys must’ve been struggling.” She says conversationally and Chaeyoung instantly turns red. 

_Is she talking to me?_

Mina’s looking over expectantly now. Chaeyoung gulps and points to herself, silently asking if Mina is indeed actually acknowledging her presence.

Mina smiles and giggles and Chaeyoung thinks it’s the most beautiful thing she’s ever seen in her life (but don’t tell Tzuyu because she’ll never hear the end of it.)

“Who else?”

Chaeyoung finally realizes that Tzuyu and Momo have both walked away and there’s no one else in these nets besides Mina and herself, and thus Chaeyoung is forced to face her new reality.

“Um, yeah.”

 _How eloquent._  

Chaeyoung wants so badly to run and hide but Mina isn’t rolling her eyes or making disgusted faces so far, so she forces herself to stay put and not make a scene (she can’t afford to attract any more attention to herself, she’d simply die of embarrassment.)

Mina continues to crawl over the net alongside Chaeyoung, picking out the birdies on her side of the extremely extremely large net and plonking them in the little bucket that Tzuyu had brought them before she left to mop with Momo.

Chaeyoung gulps. _She’s so pretty._ She thinks absently to herself, tossing another birdie in the bucket. 

“So, how’s it going?” Mina asks as she tosses another stray birdie in their bucket, making eye contact with the younger girl on her left.

“Um, it’s good.”

_How eloquent._

“Yeah? Are you really busy with school and everything?”

_Is she really talking to me right now?_

“I- I’m managing well.” Truth be told, Chaeyoung never had a hard time with schoolwork; she studied and worked hard, but she was smart and good at balancing the events of her life so schoolwork was always done in a timely manner and extremely efficiently.

Mina nods enthusiastically in response (trying her best to make the poor girl feel at ease; she knew how intimidating it could be to talk to upperclassmen like that. Although shy Chaeyoung was kind of cute.)

Across the gym, Nayeon and Jihyo are scrubbing at the ground with an unmatched vigor while Jeongyeon wipes at the lowered basketball backboards. “This is so tiring.” Jeongyeon groans, pausing slightly to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

The ever-bubbly Sana passes by them. “Need any help?” She offers Jeongyeon who shrugs and hands the rag to Sana.

“I’m actually pretty much done cleaning this one. We need to get the ones on the other side of the gym though.”

Sana nods. “Okay! I’ll go and lower them!”

There is a panel on the gym wall that has buttons that control the heights and movement of all the equipment and materials in the gym. These include the wall divider, the basketball hoops, the ropes and the batting nets. Sana cheerily makes her way over to the panel and presses the buttons to lower the basketball hoops on the far side of the gym so she and Jeongyeon can clean them like they were instructed too.

What Sana doesn’t realize is that, in order to lower those particular hoops, the ceiling nets have to be raised so the hoops can come down. And the nets, in turn, require a key code to be lowered because usually only the gym teachers or the softball/baseball coaches are allowed to access them.

Jihyo is first to catch on to this fact. “Sana, wait!” She yells, but Sana doesn’t hear her.

Nayeon and Jeongyeon realize this as well. “SANA WAIT DON’T PRESS IT-“

_Beep._

She realizes that something is wrong when she starts to hear shrieking and yelling and something along the lines of “SANA WAIT DON’T PRESS IT” but at that point, it’s _just_ too late.

_Whoops._

She turns around slowly, only to find that the hoops have been lowered and the nets have been suspended with two people shrieking inside.

Tzuyu is first to reach them. “Chaeyoung!”

Momo is right behind her. “Mina!”

Nayeon, Jihyo, and Jeongyeon all turn to look at her and in turn, everyone else in the room does too.

Sana covers her mouth with her hands. 

_Whoops._

Mina and Chaeyoung are suspended a good sixty feet off the ground in a net that wasn’t built for flexibility. Everyone is staring at them as they scream, and people are more amazed than anything.

_Who knew Chaeyoung and Mina, two of the quietest people in school, could scream so loudly?_

Tzuyu is evidently surprised as well and she stands and balks at Chaeyoung and Mina thrashing around in surprise. Momo begins to giggle though, and she quickly takes out her phone to get it on Snapchat.

_Such good blackmail._

Chaeyoung is completely caught off guard when the nets start to rise (and they go up pretty darn fast; it’s a surprise she even had the time to be so surprised.) Mina is evidently unprepared as well, but before either of them can actually react, they’re jerked off the ground at a startling pace and hanging in the air like creatures in a net trap with their bucket of birdies.

Chaeyoung screams a little when she’s suddenly thrown backwards by the rising force of the net, and she expects to feel hard ropes pressing in her back as she falls; what she doesn’t anticipate though, is feeling a human behind her back when she topples backward and seeing two legs on either side of her body that don’t belong to her _(think: Mina and Chaeyoung ISAC 2017 but suspended midair in a net)_

The bucket lands straight on her knee and she screams a little more. She feels Mina’s body moving in surprise behind her and she herself tries to get up, but the net isn’t flexible at all and they end up lying there limply and Chaeyoung really just wants to die now.

_How does this even happen?!_

“Are you alright?” She hears Mina’s voice right by her ear and she would jump if she could but she physically can’t even move herself to sit elsewhere on the net that isn’t between Mina’s legs.

“I-I’m okay!” She stutters, fumbling with the bucket a bit as she tries to collect the scattered birdies that have escaped during their ascent.

Tzuyu and Momo have already reached them, and the rest of the band class is starting to gather around.

“Are you guys okay?” Jeongyeon yells up at them as she runs over, looking extremely concerned. Tzuyu is standing with her looking really surprised, and Momo is holding her phone up in their direction (probably getting the whole thing on video). Jihyo looks shocked as well, and Nayeon is glaring at Sana who is standing further away with wide eyes and her hands covering her mouth.

“What the hell happened?!” Mina yells down at them, shifting a little to try and find a comfortable position with Chaeyoung sandwiched between her legs (good thing she’s wearing sweatpants today.)

All eyes turn to Sana who is sheepishly grinning now, and it doesn’t take long for Mina and Chaeyoung’s bright minds to put two and two together.

“SANA!”

“UNNIE!”

Sana jumps at the sheer volume of her victim’s shouts and holds her hands up in surprise. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know that the nets would rise when I tried to lower the hoops!”

Mina is furious. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME BITCH.”

Sana looks distraught. “HOW I WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS WOULD HAPPEN??”

“DID YOU READ THE DIRECTIONS ON THE PANEL BEFORE PRESSING THE FUCKING RED BUTTONS?”

“WHAT DIRECTIONS?”

“THE ONES HIGHLIGHTED IN ALL BOLD RIGHT NEXT TO THE BUTTONS YOU PRESSED.”

“YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO READ THOSE?”

Mina is livid. “I MEAN IF YOU DIDN’T WANT TO READ THEM YOU SHOULD’VE LET SOMEONE ELSE OPERATE THE PANEL- SOMEONE WHO ACTUALLY KNOWS HOW.”

“LIKE WHO??”

Mina’s hands go to her hair in frustration. “OH I DON’T KNOW- MAYBE TZUYU, MOMO, SOWON, DAHYUN, JEONGYEON, JIHYO, JISOO, NAYEON-“

“OKAY, NAYEON DEFINITELY DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO WORK IT EITHER.”

“HEY. THAT IS FALSE AND UNTRUE. I’M THE ONE WHO WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF THIS ENTIRE THING.”

A couple pairs of eyes swivel to her at that. Nayeon blinks. “What are you all looking at?”

Jeongyeon blinks as well. “Who put you in charge?”

Nayeon looks at her, wide-eyed and clueless. “The conductor, of course.”

Everyone looks relatively surprised. “He did??”

Nayeon nods, looking around curiously. “Who else?”

Mina squints at her suspiciously from her net. “Nayeon, weren’t you the one who gave him food poisoning two weeks ago?”

The girl shrugs. “You can’t prove that.”

A collective gulp goes across the room.

_She ain’t playing._

Chaeyoung looks ready to cry. “Sana unnie, get us out of here!” Her large eyes are almost filling with tears and Mina looks on, slightly alarmed.

Sana looks genuinely upset at Chaeyoung’s distraught expression. “I don’t know how!”

Jihyo winces, and Mina and Chaeyoung’s heads swivel to stare at her. “We need the key code to get you guys down.”

Nayeon groans and looks around at the rest of the shell-shocked class. “Does anyone know the code? The conductor left to pick up his wife’s birthday cake; he won’t come back until like, two hours later.”

“Two hours?!” Mina shrieks shrilly, and Chaeyoung winces at the volume of the shout in her ears.

“Are the gym teachers here? We can ask them.” Jeongyeon suggests but Jisoo, another senior, shakes her head. 

“They left half an hour ago since tomorrow’s Saturday.”

“What about the softball coaches?”

“None of them are here since it’s not baseball or softball season.”

Everyone exchanges nervous glances. Tzuyu casts a wary glance at the band students around her and then back at Chaeyoung who looks extremely uncomfortable with all the attention.

Momo exhales. “Guess there’s nothing we can do until the conductor gets back. I’ll try to find the principal; he can probably get the code for us from one of the gym teachers.” She says, and starts to jog out of the gym on her way.

Mina looks thankful. “THANK YOU MOMO.”

_Finally, someone with sense._

Momo pauses to look back up at them, an unreadable but amused expression on her face that has everyone glancing between her and the suspended Mina/Chaeyoung suspiciously. “Have fun up there.” She salutes them cheekily before jetting out.

Jeongyeon looks up apologetically at the suspended duo. “Sorry guys. Hopefully Momo can find someone who knows the code for us.”

 Chaeyoung hears Mina sigh behind her. “Guess we’re stuck here then.” The older girl murmurs.

Chaeyoung swallows nervously. “Guess so.” She hums quietly back.

“I hope you’re not too uncomfortable. We can’t exactly move around in these nets.” Mina says apologetically- Chaeyoung can practically hear the apology in her voice and it pulls at something in her heart. 

_Gosh, she’s so nice._

Chaeyoung steels herself for the tenth time that day and tells herself to be brave. “I-It’s not your fault sunbaenim. I’m sorry you have to sit like this until we get down.”

_Way to go! Keeping the stuttering to a minimum!_

Mina laughs and Chaeyoung can feel the warm vibration from the older girl’s chest. “It’s no problem. Guess we’ll just have to stick it out until they can get the code.”

The younger girl blanches but has no more to say, so she fiddles with the hem of her sweater nervously instead. She can’t see Mina’s expression either, which makes the entire encounter all the more nerve-wracking for her.

Mina isn’t faring much better. Well, in her own way she is; she can feel how rigid Chaeyoung is against her in the confined space, suspended sixty feet off the ground in a rope net where some of their classmates are still gawking at them, but she’s trying her best to make Chaeyoung feel more comfortable while trying to calm her own heart rate.

_After all, it isn’t every day you get a cute girl dropped right onto your lap._

She can only lean her head back at this point and try to think of other small talk topics to breach to the younger girl until Momo manages to find someone who knows the code.

_Fucking Sana._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The conductor shows up some time later after Momo manages to break into the principal’s office and get his number. She leaves him a voicemail, spluttering something along the lines of ‘Sana’s an idiot, nets, buttons, codes, terrified underclassmen’. Whatever she says doesn’t sound good though, so he hurries back as fast as he can to check on his students.

It’s a sight to behold. His first chair trumpet player is trying to round up a tipped cart of volleyballs, running around picking up and dropping all the volleyballs in her short pale arms. Nayeon has somehow gotten a tennis racket jammed between the heavy doors of the supply room and she and Jihyo are hitting it with more tennis rackets trying to get it out. Jeongyeon has accidentally tripped and spilled five buckets of mop water and flooded a good half of the area, causing the other kids to shriek and bat at the water with the mops like hockey sticks. Water flies in the air like rain. The blonde principal percussionist is keeled over with her hands on her knees, out of breath from running around the school trying to find a gym teacher, the usually reserved and dignified first clarinetist is trying her best not to drop a disturbingly high stack of traffic cones, the first chair flutist is beneath a net with _people_ inside it on her knees doing some sort of begging-for-forgiveness thing, and his only oboe player is in the arms of his best saxophone player, both lying desolately and swinging almost serenely above the rest of the chaos.

_They never fail to surprise._


	7. I just wanna be part of your symphony

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung are making kimbap today.

Or rather, they were _supposed_ to be making kimbap today.

Tzuyu forcefully squishes another roll of the stuff together, trying her best to suppress her displeasure. Chaeyoung is late to their kimbap-creating session, and Chaeyoung is never late to _anything._

As time passes, Tzuyu has finished cutting all the ingredients, fried the eggs, and made enough rice to last herself for the next two days (hopefully her mother is hungry tonight). Gucci, her dog, seems to be laughing at Tzuyu as he trots to and from the kitchen to the living room of Tzuyu’s spacious house. Tzuyu scowls at the pet.

Her door opens thirty minutes later and a slightly disheveled Chaeyoung rushes in. “S-Sorry Tzuyu, I was at something and it took longer than I thought it would.”

Tzuyu tries her best to hide her sulking, but she’s never been the best liar and Chaeyoung is more perceptive than she lets on. “Where were you?”

“At Sana unnie’s house.”

At the mention of their weird and unpredictable senior, Tzuyu can't help but flare a little. “Sana? Minatozaki Sana?”

“What other Sana do you know?”

Tzuyu frowns. How strange. As far as she’s concerned, Chaeyoung doesn’t have any other friends- she has Tzuyu and the conductor sometimes (all teachers tend to love Chaeyoung) and that’s about it. So what was she doing at the house of one of the most popular girls at school?

She voices her question and Chaeyoung looks like she wants to die.

Turns out Sana wanted to treat Chaeyoung to coffee and biscuits to apologize for the ‘great net incident’, as everyone who had attended the cleaning then now refers to it as. It’s the talk of the school these days- now Sana is even more famous, Momo’s some sort of hero, Mina’s still Mina (cool smart and just so chill) with more admirers, and Chaeyoung is a random kid caught between the entire mess.

Tzuyu is both surprised and unsurprised- she’s surprised that Sana is hanging out with Chaeyoung despite all this, but she’s not surprised that Chaeyoung is just ‘that random kid who got caught in the mess’. Chaeyoung is a shy kid- Tzuyu knows this well- and she generally keeps to herself (which kind of explains her lack of friends). She’s kind of a nerd too, which doesn’t bother Tzuyu but generally repels others from her. It’s sad, really; Chaeyoung is a wonderful person who’s always keeping Tzuyu in line. She’s a terrific best friend who will always listen to Tzuyu’s complaining and offer practical, hardy advice that actually works ((she’s the only person in band who didn’t strike Tzuyu as an immediate moron).

The world is definitely missing out by overlooking Chaeyoung.

“Well, were the biscuits any good?”

Chaeyoung nods as she rolls up her sleeves and scans the ingredients before her on Tzuyu’s counter. “Yeah. She made them herself this morning.”

“Huh.” Tzuyu muses to herself. “That’s nice. Pass me the crab?”

Chaeyoung leans over to grab the bowl of crab to hand to Tzuyu. It’s fresh, or course- Tzuyu is very adamant about the food she puts in her body. Her whole family is organic and all about that pasteurized meat life, so of course they had to use fresh-caught crab from the local market. It’s all very admirable and extremely extra to Chaeyoung but she would never say that out loud. The Chous are a formidable force and she’s still too young to die.

“How many rolls do you think we’ll be able to make today?”

Tzuyu is quiet for a bit as she smashes more rice together. “Maybe twenty? Thirty?”

“Thirty??”

Tzuyu nods. “You can have some to go.” She can’t quite bring herself to admit that the excess of ingredients came from waiting for her short friend.

Luckily, Chaeyoung doesn’t question her. “Alright then. Thirty it is.”

They continue rolling kimbap with soft classical music playing in the background (they’ve never been ones for conventional teenage standards), and soon enough the pile of kimbap grows to a sufficiently large stack.

Chaeyoung eyes the small mountain warily. “I think that’s enough.”

Tzuyu shrugs and claps some rice grains off her hands. “Okay.” Gucci passes by the kitchen and Tzuyu swears the dog is laughing at her. She glares at her furry companion quietly before turning back to Chaeyoung, who’s already started cleaning.

“Do you want to have dinner?” Chaeyoung looks over to her as she scoops the leftover rice into a container.

A quick glance at the kitchen wall clock tells her it’s almost 6 o’clock. “Sure. Kimbap?”

“Sounds delicious.”

Tzuyu’s parents are working this weekend (as usual), so it’s just Tzuyu and Chaeyoung in the spacious Chou residency. They say little more as they begin to clean up their experimental mess. They had long established that their friendship didn’t really need that many words to survive; Chaeyoung was a quiet soul by nature, as was Tzuyu. The difference between them really only laid in their extroverted aspects (and heights), in which Chaeyoung avoided confrontation at all costs and wasn’t easily approached, while Tzuyu spoke freely when she felt the need to roast someone or to defend herself (and Chaeyoung). But they both love music, both stray to art and music as hobbies, and they were only a few months apart in age.

“Chaeyoung.”

“Hm?” The shorter girl looks over from where she’s washing the dishes that held their kimbap ingredients.

Tzuyu bites her lip. “Can I ask you something?”

“You already did, but go ahead.” Chaeyoung laughs at her good-naturedly, tossing her braided hair back over a slender shoulder.

Tzuyu considers her next words carefully. “Umm…”

_“Tzuyu!”_

_Tzuyu turns around, startled at the sudden voice behind her. Mina is standing behind her, waving. “Hey Tzuyu, can I ask you something?”_

_Tzuyu nods hesitantly, awaiting the older’s inquiry. Mina takes a breath. “Are you single?”_

“Huh. Deja-vu.” _Tzuyu muses as she stares back at the other girl who is looking at her expectantly._

_“I am, but I’m not sure why you’d be concerned about that.” Tzuyu voices her thoughts carefully, unsure where this conversation is going to lead her._

_“Oh! Great, so what do you think about dating someone older than you?”_

_Tzuyu blinks. Mina is unfazed._

_“I don’t really mind an age difference, as long as there’s mutual attraction.”_

_Mina looks delighted. “Do you like flute players?”_

_This is getting weirder and weirder. Poor Tzuyu looks at Mina, feeling slightly aghast. She didn’t sign up to be grilled about her love preferences, especially not by one of the most unattainable people in the entire district._

‘I just want to be left alone.’

_Her saving grace comes as she’s racking her brain for an answer to the odd question (from the even odder person). Before she can say any more, she is interrupted by the creaking of door hinges and the slamming of door on wall._

_“I TOLD YOU TO BE DISCREET!”_

_A sudden shriek comes from somewhere close-ish to them and both Mina and Tzuyu jump, frightened. Sana, Momo, and three of Mina’s other friends spill out from a nearby janitor’s closet. Tzuyu gapes at the scene before her._

_Sana is first to regain her bearings, slamming a hand on a winded Jeongyeon’s back to hoist herself up from the ground. Her face is pink with rage. Mina blinks at the girl. “Aren’t you supposed to be hiding?”_

_“I AM. BUT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DISCREET. IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL DISCREET, MINA-CHAN? HM??”_

_Mina looks very confused, almost as confused as Tzuyu feels. “What?”_

_Sana huffs indignantly at Mina, the most worked-up Tzuyu thinks she’s ever seen the bubbly flutist. “UGH! You know what, never mind! Come on Mina-chan, let’s go!” Sana promptly marches over to snatch Mina’s arm and proceeds to drag her away. She seems quite flustered, Tzuyu observes- she thinks she might’ve even spotted a hint of a blush on Sana’s cheeks as she and her entourage of friends drag Mina away from Tzuyu. Mina looks over her shoulder and waves cheerfully with her other arm at Tzuyu, smiling apologetically. Tzuyu is left standing there, confused, disoriented, and stared at._

(She hasn’t forgotten an earlier conversation she had with Mina, about the dating status of a certain Son Chaeyoung. She already suspects that Chaeyoung’s situation and schoolgirl feelings towards a certain sexy saxophonist may not be as hopeless as she’d initially thought.)

Chaeyoung is still looking at her expectantly as she balks, blinking through round frames. Tzuyu swallows and chuckles nervously; she doesn’t think she can do this. Not to Chaeyoung.

_Goddamit, Tzuyu._

“Um, do you want to go to the community college’s band concert on Friday?”

Chaeyoung looks up, surprised. “Yeah, of course. Didn’t we already say we were going to go? You brought it up two days ago.” She says, giving her tall friend a weird glance. Tzuyu is sure she has an absolutely constipated expression on her face right now.

“Ha. Ha ha! Did I? Gosh, I can’t seem to remember.” Tzuyu forces a laugh from her throat that probably has her looking like something straight from a horror house.

Chaeyoung must be thinking the same thing because she looks really concerned now. “Yeah, you did. During French, remember? After the quiz and stuff.”

Tzuyu doesn’t know how to handle this situation, mainly because she _never_ messes up. Well, that’s a bit of a stretch- more like, she’s the type of person to never forget a due date, never forget her daily agenda, and never be late. Chaeyoung knows this well, so Tzuyu isn’t surprised that her friend is a little suspicious, but suspicion leads to questions and questions-

“Tzuyu, are you alright?”

 _Dammit._ Tzuyu plasters on an awkward smile as she stiffly nods. Chaeyoung is eyeing her weirdly. “I’m fine! It must’ve slipped my mind, that’s all.” She concludes awkwardly and quickly averts her gaze to their task at hand. Chaeyoung frowns but doesn’t say any more, and they finish washing in relative silence.

“I’m looking forward to Friday though.” Chaeyoung seems to forgotten about the earlier weirdness as she wipes her hands on a dish towel and smiles up at Tzuyu happily.

Tzuyu grins back. “Me too.”

To any other high schooler, attending a local, outdoorsy-fall type of evening event is something that the old people and their parents would do. To Chaeyoung and Tzuyu though, it’s a chance to simmer down from the hassling school week and rejuvenate with music. It’s just the type of event the two of them would attend together.

Chaeyoung absently crouches down to pet Gucci as the pet trots back into the kitchen. Tzuyu watches on silently. It’s kind of cute; Chaeyoung smiling fondly at the puppy as Gucci pants happily in front of her. Tzuyu again feels that familiar twinge of sadness for her misunderstood, small, overlooked friend.

Hopefully it would get better.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It’s lessons day again, and you know what that means.

As usual, Nayeon is first to get moving. “My life is so boring.” She groans, slumping over her stand as she tries to resist the urge to take a nap.

Jeongyeon looks up incredulously. “What? You were just attacked by-“

“That was yesterday! This is today! Today is boring!”

Jeongyeon balks, looks at Nayeon like she’s grown a third head, then turns and shakes her head exasperatedly. Everyone else sweats nervously.

_What on earth would possibly have the nerve to attack someone like her?_

It’s evident enough that Nayeon is indeed bored though, when she pushes her head off the music stand and begins to look around the room. “Momo, teach me how to play the cymbals.” She demands upon seeing the large, gleaming disks in the back. She’s actually awake now, ditching her tuba and clambering over to the back where the percussionists linger about.

Momo grins, delighted. “Okay! Can we switch then?” She hands Nayeon the unnervingly large pair of cymbals and Nayeon grabs a spare mouthpiece to give Momo. Momo attaches the piece to Nayeon’s tuba and plops down on one of the spare chairs in the back, as Nayeon takes a moment to marvel at the large, shiny disks in her hands. Her eyes are practically gleaming at the new apparatus currently at her disposal.

Jihyo comes in the room next and sees Nayeon holding the cymbals, grinning like a creep. “Ooo, I want to try too!” She throws her horn case down on her seat and trots over with eager eyes. Momo reaches over the tuba in her lap to grab a pair of bongos, handing them to Jihyo. She hands the tuba to someone to hold for a moment as she demonstrates to Jihyo a simple way to hold the bongos without a table. Jihyo does a fantastic manspread (good thing she’s wearing pants today) and is successfully able to secure the bongos between her legs. Momo approves and retrieves the tuba, Nayeon clashes the cymbals together for the first time, Jihyo’s palm meets the surface of the bigger bongo, and is it really band class if it’s quiet? (Answer: no, never).

Tzuyu comes in next, but she’s unfazed by the racket coming from the awful collaboration. She’s used to it at this point and nothing really scares her anymore (last week’s war being the only exception as of this year.) She sits in her normal seat, goes through her normal meticulous lining process, makes sure her reed is sufficiently saturated, and begins her warmup- today, it’s an excerpt from _Symphony No. 2_ by Rachmaninoff. It’s very classical and it’s very Tzuyu and she at the very least sounds good so no one bats an eye.

Sana has heard the racket of Nayeon and Jihyo’s horrendous percussion skills from way down the hall, so she comes in expecting and excited, but then she catches Tzuyu sitting in her spot diligently practicing and quickly decides to try and calm down a little in an attempt to raise Tzuyu’s perception of her. Dahyun is feeling good today so she decides to sing along to Momo’s tuba cover of some Demi Lovato song. It’s honestly surprising she’s able to get that much out on the foreign instrument. Jihyo sings along as she bats away at the bongos, and Nayeon- well, at least she’s having fun.

Someone starts a clap to what has been identified as ‘I Really Don’t Care’ and it’s soon an entire sing-along with an incorrect soundtrack. Jeongyeon’s trombone has taken the melody, assisting Momo’s awful tuba skills, and some of the others have joined in on their respective instruments. Dahyun starts to dance and Sana can’t really resist anymore, so she joins the sophomore and waves her flute precariously in the air to the beat. Jisoo starts to samba, Dahyun’s got a small conga line going, and suddenly everyone’s chanting OH OH OH I REALLY DON’T CARE WOOOOOO.

Tzuyu takes in the scene around her, disinterested as usual. She sees the upperclassmen acting like idiots (as usual), Dahyun causing a scene (as usual) and Sana, well she’s-

As she’s looking around, she catches Sana’s eye from across the room as the older girl is swaying her hips to the beat of Jihyo’s bongos and Nayeon’s steady cymbal clash. She looks right into Sana’s dark eyes so full of light, catches sight of that smile genuinely happy, so carefree and transparent and Sana’s expression morphs to something soft that has something in Tzuyu shifting up. It’s so strange- it’s _so_ strange because the freshman has never thought anything of anyone around her who didn’t understand her, never bothered trying, and it’s just-

Tzuyu always hears talk of moments in time where everything just stops. The world, time, people, objects- it’s like, where everything would freeze, would cease in a way even when it really didn’t. Those were little pockets of something almost magical, what they were all talking about. And she never believed them- why would she? To her, this all just sounds like a big scoop of bullshit. Because it’s just not possible to have that experience. Science says so, logic says so, and it makes no sense for everything to just stop like that because there are so many factors and- that’s just how she lived. How she still lives. She still lives like that, and she doesn’t believe in these little pocket freezes that everyone always talks about.

Yet somehow, some way, something so strong moves in Tzuyu in that moment- and she doesn’t like it. She stares back at Sana blankly, calm and kind of dead on the outside but inside, her mind is racing to make sense of what’s going on, her body going even a little haywire to try to remedy this situation.

Sana’s attention is drawn away eventually by someone screaming loudly and the rave continues- and just like that, the moment’s gone and over and Tzuyu is left with an increased heartbeat, sweaty palms, her heartbeat in her ears, and a confused mind (she’s never really believed too much in ‘heart knowledge’- why would she, when her brain tells her everything she needs to know?)

As she regains her bearings, she spots Mina on top of one of the brass lockers (Tzuyu doesn’t even want to know how she got up there) fully immersed in the chaos of her fellow seniors. Momo is on the other side of the room, struggling to blow into the tuba and dance at the same time, Jihyo and Nayeon are really into their respective percussive contributions, and everyone else is just living it up (except for her and a couple other underclassmen; this is just too much).

The conductor walks in a few minutes later, as things are really in full swing, and he just facepalms. The underclassmen dutifully go to sit in their seats, as do the juniors (because they secretly all want to be in his good graces for a shot at a better seat next year), but the seniors pay him no mind- Mina’s still on the lockers, Sana’s still dancing, Jeongyeon is swinging her trombone around in the air precariously, and Nayeon is smashing the cymbals together like there’s no tomorrow.

“Alright, let’s settle down now!”

Dahyun finally goes and plops down in her chair, a little sweaty but smiling brightly. No one else even hears him though.

“Class, sit down! We’re starting soon and we’ve got a lot of music to go over today!”

Nothing.

“Im Nayeon, if you don’t put those cymbals down right now I’m giving you all gym cleaning duty! Again!”

At this, the girl gasps and instantly drops the cymbals with a clang. Momo squawks a little at the impact. “My cymbals!” She runs over to the site of the accident, shoving the tuba back into Nayeon’s arms to kneel over the shining disks. Nayeon pays her no mind and just trots back to her seat, flopping down with a small huff.

The party’s pretty much over at this point, and Jihyo’s went back to her French horn as well. Momo and Jeongyeon are helping Mina down from atop the lockers, and when her feet are finally back on the ground, the conductor sighs and relaxes a little. Order is restored.

“Thank you, ladies. Now, everyone take out Mars and look at measure 35…”

It’s just another day in band.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Friday evening is shaping up to be a good one; it’s warm, sunny, autumn hasn’t really settled in yet, and it’s a lovely day to be outside.

Tzuyu’s older brother drops them off at the site of the concert and he pulls off with a wave and a ‘Call mom when you’re done’. With that, the sophomores are left to their own devices.

“This is nice.” Chaeyoung smiles. People are milling about, mostly people their parent’s ages, talking and eating and there’re refreshments on a nearby table and plenty of nonalcoholic beverages. Kids even younger than them are running around chasing each other, and there isn’t a high schooler in sight. Just the way they like it.

“It is.” Tzuyu agrees as she takes in her surroundings. There are a bunch of chairs set up on the grass before an area obviously meant for the band. There are balloons tied to tables and microphones, and the entire thing is just so wholesome and nice. Tzuyu feels something in her settle contently. It’s just her, the locals who don’t know them, small children, and her best friend. Not too shabby, considering her status as ‘new girl’. This is exactly how she’d envisioned her Friday evening to go. Exactly how she’d wanted it to be. It’s perfect- it really is.

Until six very familiar figures tumble out of a Jeep that has haphazardly screeched to a halt in the gravelly parking lot of the park.

Unfortunately, Tzuyu recognizes the first one (and hears her too). “I thought you said Nayeon is a good driver!” Momo is leaning on the side of the vehicle like her knees would give out at any time.

Mina hops out next to her. “She is! You don’t think so?”

Momo sends her a glare that would have anyone else reeling into tomorrow, but Mina just laughs and runs a hand through her brunette hair.

Nayeon has heard the remark and scowls at Momo. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m a great driver!”

“Yeah! Great!” Jihyo backs her up, and the two exchange the most enthusiastic high-five Tzuyu has ever seen.

Jeongyeon rolls her eyes from the side. “Honestly, I think we’ve just all gotten used to it by now.” She pats Momo on the back and goes on ahead to join Mina in her one-way march to the refreshment table.

Sana, however, is completely unfazed. “That was so much fun! You should invite me more often!” She gets out of the car happily, trotting after Jeongyeon and catching up with Nayeon and Jihyo.

Momo looks at her incredulously. “Is running through three red lights in a Jeep blasting Kendrick your idea of fun?!” 

“Don’t forget the cop chase!” Jihyo helpfully adds from the side. Nayeon looks kind of proud.

“I hit sixty-five on the local roads today!”

Momo rolls her eyes. “Right. How did I leave that out?”

Sana just beams. “It felt like a rollercoaster! I love rides, you know?” She says cheerily.

Tzuyu stares at the new arrivals dumbly. Chaeyoung hasn’t noticed their arrival yet and is happily conversing with one of the locals with a child in one of the local elementary schools.

_“Why are they here?!”_

“Tzuyu?”

She turns back to her company, slightly startled, to find the nice lady and Chaeyoung looking at her expectantly. “We’re in the high school band, right?”

Tzuyu swallows. “Ah, that’s right. I play the clarinet.” She smiles awkwardly, trying to contribute to the conversation.

The lady clasps her hands together. “That’s wonderful! I’ve always wished that Ciara would pick up the clarinet…”

They continue on with the chat, and Chaeyoung is smiling and nodding to something the woman is saying, but Tzuyu just can’t tear her eyes away from the crowd of six who have just discovered the refreshments table. Mina must’ve been hungry today- she’s got a plate of brownies almost as tall as Chaeyoung and she’s eating like she hasn’t seen food for a month. Momo is always hungry- so is Jeongyeon- and they’re hovering over the sandwich plates. Jihyo has demolished two jugs of lemonade and is moving onto her third, and Nayeon is working through a couple of complementary burritos.

The band begins to file onto the stage, and Chaeyoung nudges her arm. “Tzuyu, I think they’re starting soon. Want to sit down?”

Tzuyu snaps back to attention and nods hastily. “Oh, yeah. Let’s go.” They bid the nice lady goodbye and make their way to the seating area, where people have already started to make themselves comfortable. They decide to sit somewhere in the safe middle, not too close but close enough to get the full experience. Tzuyu almost forgets about the newcomers, but then she feels Chaeyoung stiffen next to her.

“Tzuyu!”

Chaeyoung nudges her with a sharp elbow and they both look over a couple aisles over, where Nayeon, Jihyo, Mina, Momo, Jeongyeon, and Sana have made themselves at home, each girl with a large plate of comestibles in her hands, talking very loudly and laughing obnoxiously. No one’s really paying them any mind except Tzuyu and Chaeyoung though- they technically aren’t doing anything wrong, and they’re not really disturbing anyone since everyone is used to noise, with their small children and all.

Chaeyoung balks for a moment. “What are they doing here?” She hisses quietly to Tzuyu, who can only shrug helplessly. 

“I don’t know! I didn’t think anyone from school would be at an event like this!” She whispers fiercely back to her small friend. Chaeyoung just sighs a little.

“Well, I guess this _is_ a public event. They’re not bothering us anyway.” She says resignedly, turning her attention back to the front and disregarding their seniors’ presences. Tzuyu can only do the same.

On the other side of the event, Momo nudges Mina’s ribs harshly. “Look!”

Mina almost chokes on her brownies. “Ow! What, Momo, what??” She bites back, cupping a hand over her ribs. 

Momo juts her chin to the right. “Isn’t that Chaeyoung?”

At the mention of the small girl, Mina’s head snaps to the direction Momo’s looking. She doesn’t immediately see Chaeyoung, but she does see a tall figure with wavy purple hair sitting next to her. That must be Tzuyu, she reasons, and sure enough next to her is a smaller girl who looks absolutely adorable. It is indeed Chaeyoung- Chaeyoung and Tzuyu, in fact, and she’s pleasantly surprised.

“Oh. Would you look at that, it is.” She muses, munching on the remnants of her chocolatey snacks.

Momo smacks her shoulder at the placid response. “Yah, stop being an idiot. You should talk to her!”

Mina doesn’t stop chewing but she doesn’t shoot down the idea either, so Momo eggs her on. “This is your chance to get closer to her- when do you ever see her in school anyway? She wouldn’t want to talk to a loser like you!”

Mina swallows the last of her brownie bites and is apparently convinced by Momo’s suggestions. “You’re right. I’ll definitely talk to her after the concert!” She’s easily swayed, and Momo claps at her determination.

Nayeon pokes her head out to look over at them. “Talk to who?”

“Chaeyoung. You know, from school? She’s sitting over there with Tzuyu.” Momo responds, gesturing to where Tzuyu and Chaeyoung are seated side-by-side. At the mention of Tzuyu, Sana’s attention is rapt and her head shoots up as well.

Nayeon frowns in confusion. “Oh. Are you friends?” She asks Mina, but before the girl can say anything, Momo replies for her.

“No, Minari here just has a little crush on her.”

Everyone’s jaws drop at the same time and Mina cringes. Momo is blissfully unaware of everything and she just smiles and looks between their shocked expressions confusedly.

Jihyo is intrigued. “Why, Mina! You didn’t tell us about this! Who is this Chaeyoung person you speak of?” She asks excitedly, eyes widened to full capacity and hands clasped delightedly.

Mina looks at her incredulously. “You were the one berating me for not knowing her when you _broke into my house-”_

Nayeon clears her throat and raises a finger. “That was me, Minari.”

_“Why do you assume Tzuyu’s good at music because she goes fishing? What if she just practices a lot?”_

_They look genuinely stumped at this question. Mina waits patiently, looking at them expectantly._

_“Well,” Nayeon begins hesitantly. “She seems like she’s pretty smart.”_

_“She’s friends with Chaeyoung at least, so she must be a little smart by default, right?” Jeongyeon mumbles thoughtfully._

_Dahyun nods. “Yeah. Chaeyoung’s super smart. She’s a good musician too.”_

_“Who?”_

_They blink at her. “Chaeyoung. That really small sophomore who plays oboe in band?” Nayeon asks, giving Mina the most condescending look._

_“The_ only _oboe player?” Jeongyeon adds pointedly. “You must know her.”_

Ah. Mina rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. It was Nayeon after all. (And Jeongyeon, for good measure).

Sana tsks at her disapprovingly. “I can’t believe you didn’t know who Chaeyoung was. That’s so rude, Mina-chan.”

Mina splutters indignantly. “I didn’t-”

“I agree, that’s totally not cool. I mean, it’s not you don’t see her like oh I don’t know every single day in band class or anything-”

“I don’t really-”

“Yeah, that’s so rude Mina.” Jihyo shakes her head disapprovingly and Mina has no words.

“I am deceased.” She declares, slumping down into her seat. Momo pats her shoulder comfortingly.

Jihyo shrugs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. But I totally support your crush on Chaeyoung!”

“Do you even know who she is?”

Jihyo huffs. “Of course I do! The internet is a great thing, you know?” She proudly shows Mina her phone screen, where she’s got what seems to be Chaeyoung’s instagram profile pulled up. The profile is private- but it’s more than enough to make Mina nervous.

“Jihyo-”

“Too late!” The hornist crows happily, tapping the ‘request’ button. Mina wants to die.

“Did you just request to follow Chaeyoung on instagram?” Jeongyeon asks, more amused than anything as she casually looks over Jihyo’s shoulder at the glowing phone screen. Jihyo nods, apparently quite pleased with herself.

“Ooo, can one of you get Tzuyu’s profile up for me? I can’t seem to find her.” Sana says from next to Jeongyeon, eyes fixed on her own phone with an upset frown.

Nayeon whips out her device. “I’m an expert at internet stalking, I gotchu.” Sana leans over eagerly, hands clasped on Nayeon’s shoulder as the girl works her magic.

“Here it is!” Nayeon declares a few moments later, holding up her phone screen for all to see. Mina and Momo both find themselves leaning forward to look.

Jeongyeon is impressed. “She has so many followers!”

“But she has like, no friends?” Nayeon frowns, confused.

Mina shrugs. “Isn’t she from Taiwan? Maybe she had a lot of friends there.”

Momo nods her agreement. “That would make sense. And, she’s super pretty!”

Sana whips her head around to glare at Momo. “Don’t even think about it, Hirai.”

“Huh?” Clueless Momo is confused.

“She’s mine! Mine! Got it?! I don’t want you or any of your ripped muscles anywhere near her!”

“Oh my.” Momo mutters saltily to herself, holding her hands up in mock surrender. Sana gives her one last glare for good measure, and makes the ‘I’m watching you’ sign before turning back to Nayeon, intrigued.

“So should I follow her or…”

Mina tunes out the rest of Sana’s conversation in favor of focusing on her own issues right now. Jihyo is grinning like a creep, Momo evidently doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with the current situation, and Jeongyeon doesn’t seem to care much about anything. Before she can say anything else though, the band members start to file out onto the stage and everyone’s attention is directed toward them.

An administrator of the program steps up to the mike as the band’s getting themselves assembled and starts some sort of welcome speech that everyone knows will end in asking for donations. Unfortunately, none of them high schoolers can afford to empty their pockets right now (Momo eats too much to spare any, Nayeon needs gas money and a lot of car maintenance money, Jeongyeon pays too much for TV and comic books, Sana likes buying clothes more than listening to band music, and Mina- well, let’s not talk about Mina. She still needs to buy groceries.)

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung pass the basket to the next people over. “Do you think they’ll stay the whole time?” Tzuyu asks Chaeyoung, looking a little afraid.

Chaeyoung casts a wary glance at her phone, and then at the six in the back. “I don’t know. But Jihyo just requested to follow me on instagram.” She holds up her phone for Tzuyu to see, and they both balk a little bit at the notification.

“Whatever.” Chaeyoung mutters to herself, deleting the notification and focusing her attention back on the stage. Tzuyu’s heart twinges a little for her friend.

The concert is pretty good though- the musicians play some swing, some marches, and some covers and it’s honestly just a good time. As it goes on, Tzuyu and Chaeyoung both find themselves loosening up a little, getting into the rhythm and enjoying the pieces.

But, it’s hard to ignore the six hurricanes-waiting-to-happen on the other side of the outdoor venue.

“Ooo, this is my jam!” Nayeon starts to bob incessantly to the strong beat of one of the marches.

Sana’s arms are twitching a little. They all know she just wants to jump up and rave. Sana and Mina share a quiet glance, and the normally composed girl is also starting to feel a little twitchy. It quickly just turns into a competition of who can stay still longer than the other (both are faring horribly, but still in the running).

About halfway through the catchy song, the conductor does some sort of ‘let’s include the community members’ thing, and he gestures to the audience members to start clapping. Tzuyu and Chaeyoung join everyone else, clapping politely to the beat. Sana, unfortunately, has other plans.

“IT’S LIT!” 

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung both jump at the sudden shriek and whip around. Sana and Mina have both risen from their seats and are dancing like maddened birds. Momo doesn’t hesitate to join them (she’s got dance in her DNA), Jihyo yanks an old person from out of nowhere to salsa with, Mina starts twerking, and suddenly the entire area is filled with dancing old people and screaming children.

Tzuyu and Chaeyoung stay frozen in their seats and watch the scene, slightly horrified. They see Jeongyeon leap onto the stage and start swaying madly with the clarinetists. Nayeon is raving with a couple senior citizens to their left, Momo’s started yet another conga line with the small children, Mina’s head-banging to the tuba pulse and flailing around with Sana.

_How could this happen?!_

“So much for a quiet Friday evening.” Chaeyoung awkwardly comments as the song eventually comes to an end. The community members start cheering enthusiastically and clapping in delight as the band exits the stage, and then everyone mills off to talk again in their own little circles.

Tzuyu nods stiffly beside her, and they just kind of sit there. From further away, Momo punches Mina.

“It’s your chance! Go!”

Mina hisses at the strike and is about to fight back, but then she looks up to where Momo’s stabbing her arm through the air. “Oh. Oh! I got it I got it.” She scrambles to her feet and stumbles off with a smack on her behind from the percussionist for good measure.

“Chaeyoung!”

The two underclassmen look up, startled to see Myoui Mina stumbling towards them. Chaeyoung blinks.

“Hi.” Mina reaches them, a little breathless, and offers a smile. Tzuyu and Chaeyoung hesitantly return the gesture, wondering what she could possibly want.

Mina just stares at them a little, wondering what she should say next. _Clearly she didn’t think this through._

“Good evening sunbaenim.” Chaeyoung awkwardly dips her head. Tzuyu’s just impressed Chaeyoung actually managed to say something to the girl, and she takes a small step back in hopes of getting Chaeyoung to say some more.

Mina straightens again, having caught her breath. “Hey! I saw you guys from over there and I wanted to say hi.” She smiles at them with a little wave and _gosh_ she’s so pretty- Chaeyoung looks nervous now. She’s clearly not in any position to say anything, so Tzuyu steps forward to intervene on her little friend’s behalf.

“Did you come to watch the concert too, sunbae?” She asks politely. Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything but Tzuyu can practically feel the gratitude radiating from her.

Mina waves a hand. “We went over this- drop the honorifics.” She smiles kindly at them both. “And yeah, Sana saw a poster for it earlier in the library today so we came with her to check it out.”

Tzuyu blinks. “Oh. That’s- well, that’s nice.” She offers lamely, honestly taken aback that Sana was the one to instigate the whole thing.

Mina nods. “Yeah, it sounded like fun so we agreed to come. I’m glad we did though- I really liked the second piece.”

The second piece was a traditional American swing featuring an impressive trumpet solo and layers of saxophone harmonies. “I liked it too.” Tzuyu agrees, allowing a small smile before she pinches Chaeyoung lightly from behind. This jerks the younger girl out of her frozen state, and she jerks just a little in surprise at the contact.

Mina’s looking at Chaeyoung expectantly, all glorious smile and pearly whites. “What about you, Chaeyoung?”

Chaeyoung stares at Mina looking a little terrified. “I- um, yeah. I liked the music today.” She mumbles softly, looking down as she tries to hide behind Tzuyu.

“Hey, I wanted to thank you for lab the other day too. Thanks for letting me work with you.” Mina looks genuinely grateful to her. Chaeyoung doesn’t know what to do.

“It’s no problem.” She replies in the same quiet voice that both Mina and Tzuyu find themselves straining to hear. Mina looks like she’s about to say something else, but then-

“CHAEYOUNG AH! IS THAT YOU?”

Sana is waving frantically from a few yards away, before she breaks away from her company to run over. “You guys! What’s up?” She asks in her usual energetic way, beaming a smile. It’s Tzuyu’s turn to stand stiffly as Chaeyoung blinks up at the older girl.

“Hi unnie.” She says, still soft, but not nearly as frightened. She’s not trying to hide behind Tzuyu in front of Sana like she did with Mina,- Mina is a little ruffled at the observation.

Sana beams at her. “You look so cute today!” She says happily, reaching out to brush some hair from the younger girl’s forehead. Large eyes gaze up at her, unafraid. Mina can only wonder.

“Hi Tzuyu!” Sana’s perky voice addresses the tall girl.

Chaeyoung turns to Tzuyu expectantly (she’s always been the bolder between the two) but to her surprise, Tzuyu just waves awkwardly.

_Lame._

Chaeyoung internally sighs. “Did you enjoy the concert, unnie?” She asks, turning back to Sana.

Sana beams. “I did! I’m glad we all came today, I had a lot of fun.”

“Yeah! Fun!”

To everyone’s horror, Nayeon and Jihyo have materialized beside them and have taken a green light to enter the conversation. They’re looking at Chaeyoung and Tzuyu with these creepy grins and Tzuyu just feels uncomfortable now.

“Sana, Mina, who are your friends?” Nayeon asks purposely, eyeing the underclassmen.

Sana doesn’t really sense the weirdness, although Mina is a little shook. “This is Chaeyoung, and this is Tzuyu! Guys, this is Nayeon.” She gestures to the tubists, “and Jihyo! I think we’re all in the same band class.”

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu automatically duck a little. “Good evening sunbaenim.” They say in unison. Nayeon looks a little shocked.

“Jihyo! They’re so polite!”

Jihyo is fascinated as well. “Right? That’s crazy- we were never this polite when we were underclassmen.”

Mina chuckles lightly. “Didn’t you throw acorns at that one senior because she yelled at Jeongyeon?”

Nayeon laughs fondly. “I remember that. But hey, no one yells at Jeongyeon and gets away with it! Except me, of course.” She adds proudly as an afterthought.

Momo loops up to join them. “Gets away with what?” She asks, leaning an arm on Mina’s shoulder. She makes a silly face at Chaeyoung and Tzuyu in greeting, who smile gratefully at the kind older girl.

Mina turns her head a little to fill her in. “When we were sophomores, a senior in band yelled at Jeongyeon for never bringing valve oil and always being unprepared for class.”

“It was serious! Jeongyeon almost cried!” Jihyo interjects quickly, looking solemn.

“Yeah- we couldn’t just let her get away with it.” Nayeon adds matter-of-factly, crossing her arms beside Jihyo.

Mina just looks amused. Sana looks very interested (they had yet to meet at that point, so she doesn’t know what happened). “What did you do then?” The other Japanese girl asks.

“Why we had to avenge our dear Jeongyeon!” Jihyo says. “So, we went and threw acorns at her until she apologized.”

Mina snorts at that. “She didn’t even get to apologize- you two literally knocked her out!”

The story-listeners clearly weren’t expecting that. “What?” Sana asks, confused.

“You heard me. They knocked her out with the acorns- like, out. Cold. The gym teacher got so scared, he thought she died on his watch from exhaustion or something.”

Momo blinks. “Well- I mean- did they get in trouble for it?”

“Nope. No one even knew. It’s a mystery to this day.”

Nayeon smiles nostalgically. “Our first hit-and-run. Those were the days, huh?” She and Jihyo get this weird, faraway look in their eyes as they gaze out at the lights.

Everyone else looks a little nervous. Momo coughs awkwardly. Tzuyu and Chaeyoung don’t even dare to move.

“Anyway!” Sana claps her hands together to dissipate the silence. “I’m glad everyone had a good time! It’s really weird to see other people from our school at an event like this, especially on a Friday you know?” She smiles at them all.

“Right.” Nayeon says flatly.

“We should probably get going though.” Tzuyu finally speaks up, taking a quick peek at her phone.

“How are you getting home?” Mina asks.

“My mom’s coming to pick us up.” Tzuyu replies, gesturing to herself and Chaeyoung. The older girls nod understandingly.

“Lucky.” Momo groans from Mina’s right.

“You got a problem, Hirai?” Nayeon barks, shooting an icy glare her way. Momo backs down, but she isn’t deterred from crossly mumbling something crass under her breath.

The younger ones look on awkwardly. “Well, we’re going to get going then. Have a good evening.” They receive enthusiastic waves as they go to the parking lot where Tzuyu’s mom has just pulled up.

Mina’s mood instantly turns 180 degrees. “Guys! You ruined it!”

“Ruined what?” They all blink owlishly at her.

Sana is supporting her. “Tzuyu didn’t even say anything to me! Minari, what do I do!” She wails, collapsing into the other girl’s arms. 

“Ha! Chaeyoung said one sentence to me!” Mina crows triumphantly, fist-pumping victoriously. Sana just groans and rolls over in Mina’s arms.

Nayeon rolls her eyes from the side, crossing her arms. “Whatever, losers. Anyway, we should get going- I need to sleep by 10:30 tonight.”

They all turn to look at her. Jeongyeon comes up besides Jihyo with a plate full of food, the last of the refreshments. “That’s so early?”

“I have a meeting tomorrow.” Nayeon states matter-of-factly.

Momo looks like she has a question on her tongue but decides against it. Sana accepts the statement readily. “Oh, alright! We should get going then!” She leads the way to Nayeon’s Jeep, with a reluctant Momo dragging behind. Nayeon starts the engine and soon the sound of her ratchet music fills the air. It’s almost like noise pollution.

_Hopefully this time would be better._


	8. Digestion Lesson

“Jihyo requested to follow me on Instagram again.”

 

Tzuyu has to stifle a laugh. “Who??”

 

Chaeyoung has a slightly constipated look on her face. “Park Jihyo? She plays French horn in band? Remember last week?”

 

Tzuyu shakes her head amusedly as she peers over Chaeyoung’s shoulder. “Looks like she’s not the only one who’s requested.”  
  
There are six requests in Chaeyoung’s que waiting for a response. Tzuyu wants to laugh- she really really does- but she keeps it together for Chaeyoung’s sake; there’s ‘GodJihyo’, ’ImQueenNabongs’, ‘ostrich_san’, ‘pigfootprincess’, ‘prettypengu’, and a surprisingly normal ‘sana.mizo’ (which they can only guess to be Sana).

 

Tzuyu laughs for real as Chaeyoung groans. “What is going on.” The smaller girl deadpans, whining into Tzuyu’s shoulder.

 

“More like what’s with those handles.”

 

Chaeyoung exhales through her nose. “Are they going to try and attack me on Monday?”

 

Tzuyu just pats her back comfortingly, albeit unsympathetic. “I’m sure they’re just trying to be nice.”

 

Chaeyoung looks skeptical. “Tzuyu, you were there on Friday. They’re terrifying!” She exclaims, turning to her friend in disbelief.

 

Poor Chaeyoung. Tzuyu just tuts, shakes her head, and then decides to open her own account to check her feed. She freezes.

 

Chaeyoung notes the weird look on her face and scrambles over to snatch the phone from Tzuyu’s stiff hand. “AHA!” She collapses into laughter, one hand clutching her stomach and the other at Tzuyu’s new phone.

 

Tzuyu scowls. “It’s not funny!” She moves to swipe her phone back from her short friend.

 

Sure enough, six new followers have been alerted on Tzuyu’s account- the same six as Chaeyoung’s. Tzuyu groans, burying her face in her hands. It was a mistake to keep her account public- she can’t even filter them!

 

(She can almost picture Jihyo sunbaenim’s creepy smile).

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“MINA-CHAN!”

 

The door to the girl’s bedroom flies open and five humans pile in unceremoniously. Mina doesn’t budge.

 

“Minari!”

 

_Nothing._

 

“Minaminaminaminaminaminaminamina-“

 

“Oh my gosh, what?!” The girl finally turns around in her seat, annoyed, to face a grinning Jihyo, Sana, Nayeon, Jeongyeon and Momo.

 

Sana moves first, flinging herself dramatically into Mina’s unwelcoming arms. “TZUYU ACCEPTED MY INSTAGRAM REQUEST- SHE EVEN FOLLOWED ME BACK!” She all but shoves her phone in Mina’s face, the glaring light almost blinding the girl (Sana’s never had the best vision and it shows through her phone screen).

 

Mina hisses in shock as she frantically tries to shove Sana’s arm away from her face. “What?!”

 

Sure enough, Tzuyu is now listed under Sana’s list of followers and Sana under Tzuyu’s. Mina’s eyes widen.

 

“How did she not block you-”

 

“Why would she block me-”

 

“You’re so creepy-”

 

“That is _so_ rude-”

 

“ANYWAY!” Jihyo interjects abruptly, shoving Sana’s arm (hovering dangerously close) away from Mina’s eyes. “You two can continue your little argument later. Mina, you’ll be interested to know that Chaeyoung has also accepted my follow request.”

 

“And mine!” Momo chirps from Mina’s bed, where she frequently makes herself comfortable when visiting the girl.

 

“And mine!” Jeongyeon adds from her spot on Mina’s posh hardwood floors, where she’s comfortably sprawled out next to the bed.

 

“And mine!” Nayeon calls from on top of Mina’s bookshelf. They all turn to look at her curiously, her distant voice drawing attention.

 

Nayeon looks up from her phone to stare down at all of them. “What?”

 

“How did you… you know what, never mind.” Mina murmurs listlessly, shaking her head in mild wonder.

 

Jihyo tsks disapprovingly. “You’re missing the important things, Mina.” She says matter-of-factly, shaking her own phone in Mina’s face. “Check your insta!”

 

Mina snaps out of her Nayeon-shock-induced haze. “Oh. Right!” She takes out her phone and opens the app, and is delighted to see that ‘son.chaeyoung’ has accepted her follow request- and requested her back!

 

“YAAZZ! TAKE THAT SANA.” Mina thrashes violently in her seat, almost knocking Sana out of her lap to the unforgiving ground. Sana squeals and hangs on tightly.

 

“Quit it! You almost dropped me on the floor!”

 

Mina ignores her. “SHE NOTICED ME. I CAN’T BELIEVE SHE NOTICED ME.”

 

Nayeon rolls her eyes from her perch. “Stop being so embarrassing. Of course she notices you.”

 

That gets the girl’s attention. She stops flailing her arms and turns to look up at Nayeon. “Really?”

 

Nayeon huffs in exasperation. “How can she not? Practically everyone in our school knows who you are.”

 

Momo raises her hand in objection. “I didn’t know her until last month.”

 

“Shut up, Momo! The point is, Chaeyoung would be crazy to not know who you are. I don’t understand why you’re being so PC about this.”

 

Mina frowns. “Well, what do you think I should do next then?”

 

“Talk to her, duh!”

 

“What??”

 

“You got this, Minari!” Momo sings airily, eyes closed contentedly as she relishes in the glorious texture of Mina’s imported mattress.

 

“Yeah, you can do it Mina-chan!”

 

“Don’t be a wuss!”

 

“We’re all supporting you.” Nayeon shoots her a thumbs-up from her perch.

 

Mina sighs. _At least someone supports her._

 

“By the way, your bookshelf is really really dusty. Want me to wipe it off?”

 

Mina just stares at her.

 

“Oh, there’s baby wipes in the bathroom. Let me go grab them.” Momo bounces off the bed to trot to the bathroom.

 

“I’ll put the trash here.” Jihyo places Mina’s wastebasket next to the bookshelf for Nayeon’s convenience.

 

“Itadakimasu!”

 

Sana blinks confusedly. “Where’s the food and why don’t I have any-”

 

“You’re welcome!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

_“Okay, here goes.”_

 

Mina swallows nervously, steeling herself as she steals quick glances Chaeyoung’s way.

 

_“You can do this!”_

 

She softly clears her throat. “Chae-”

 

“CHAEYOUNG-AH!”

 

Mina goes slack-jawed, her sight of the shorter girl abruptly blocked by three intruding bodies.

 

Chaeyoung looks shell-shocked, looking up from her task as Jihyo slings an arm around the small girl’s shoulders. “Chaeyoung-ah! Unnie is so happy you accepted my friendship!”

 

“What are you-”

 

None of them pay her palpable confusion any heed. “Yes! Aw look at you, such a cutie!” Nayeon gushes, reaching out to pinch a cheek with her long, skinny fingers.

 

Chaeyoung’s left cheek is left a shade pinker from the intrusion. “Um, are you-”

 

“Don’t you start Im Nabongs, she’s mine. Look at her- we could be siblings!”

 

“Shut up Yoo Jeongyeon don’t offend her not everyone is as ugly as you-”

 

“That is _so_ rude-”

 

“Anyway!” Jihyo interrupts, effectively diffusing a rapidly escalating encounter. She turns back to Chaeyoung with a bright smile and clasped hands. “I’m so happy we’ve made a new friend this year!”

 

Nayeon nods eagerly. “We’re gonna have so much fun together, I can feel it in my bones!”

 

“You better believe her. Her bones are mad old.”

 

“Excuse me-”

 

“-they’re literally like two thousand years old-”

 

“They are NOT two thousand years old-”

 

“ANYWAY.” Jihyo interjects, shoving her companions out of her way. “Chaeyoung, this is going to be a GREAT school year!”

 

“Jihyo, the school year’s already started-”

 

“Shut up Jeongyeon it’s only September-”

 

“Yeah but still, you should’ve said ‘the rest of the school year’-”

 

“Don’t start with me Yoo Jeongyeon, I’ll let Nayeon at you.”

 

Jeongyeon abruptly snaps up, back ramrod straight and it just kind of ends at that. “Yes ma’am.”

 

Nayeon glowers at her briefly, before turning back to Chaeyoung with a kind smile. “Don’t mind them. Now, where should we start?”

 

Mina can only watch the encounter from afar, as the three effectively ruin her opportunity to talk to the small underclassman. She sighs, shoulders slumped, as she walks away.

 

(She misses the glances Chaeyoung steals her way as she walks away).

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Chaeyoung has made it her mission to have a peaceful school life.

 

She’s made it her mission to stay out of trouble, stay away from drama and the so-called ‘cool’ kids who like to pick on her for god knows what reasons, even to stay away from teachers in fear that such interactions would make her an even easier target for the relentless tide that is high schoolers. So she keeps her head down, her voice mum, and she sits in the front corners of her classes and even in the lunch room with Tzuyu.

 

Today, however, something is off.

 

It starts when a lunch tray slams forcefully before her at her usual, corner-bound, quiet table. She jumps at the sound and immediately cowers, but looks up only to find a grinning Nayeon with her lunch and all her stuff.

 

“Hi.” The older girl grins her usual crooked grin, and while she’s known for her… sometimes erratic behavior, there’s nothing malicious in her greeting or grin. “Can I sit?”

 

She’s standing where Tzuyu usually sits. Chaeyoung swallows hard before replying, so softly Nayeon has to strain to hear. “Tzuyu usually sits there.”

 

Nayeon blinks, looking around, and Chaeyoung cringes a little. She’s expecting a sneer, an ‘I-don’t-see-her-anywhere’ and maybe some more mild mockery, but surprisingly it doesn’t come- Nayeon just looks back at her with wide, apologetic eyes.

 

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Can I sit there instead?” She points to the seat next to the one Tzuyu usually occupies. No one else would ever think, much less want, to sit with them so of course it’s unoccupied. Chaeyoung just nods, wondering if Nayeon is aware of any of this.

 

Nayeon grins at the younger girl’s assent and plops down. “Whatcha eating?” She asks, friendly and approachable, leaning forward to get a closer look at the girl’s lunch.

 

Chaeyoung still doesn’t really know how to handle this. No one ever talks to her, (unless it’s to mock her, usually) sans Tzuyu; this is going against protocol.

 

“Um, it’s just a veggie wrap-”

 

_BANG!_

 

Chaeyoung jumps again as two more backpacks drop into adjacent seats at her usually unoccupied table. Nayeon just looks up like this is normal, not fazed in the least. “Oh, you guys made it.”

 

Jihyo and Jeongyeon are standing above them with matching wide smiles. “Chaeyoung! Can we sit?”

 

She can’t really say anything to stop them, so she just nods and they happily take their seats. Nayeon has to stop Jeongyeon though, as she tries to sit in Tzuyu’s normal seat. “Not there.” She says simply, guiding the girl to the spot on her other side.

 

Jihyo settles next to Chaeyoung and starts unwrapping a sandwich. “You all will never guess what happened in my calc class today…”

 

They trail off in comfortable, surprisingly normal conversation (Chaeyoung was seriously starting to wonder whether or not anything these people did was normal) but it’s actually not unpleasant- they’re older than her but they’re friendly, and they make sure to include her even though they obviously have much more to talk about as close friends.

 

Tzuyu comes ten minutes later (she’d been held up in a makeup quiz) and she almost doesn’t make it to the table, stopping some feet away to blink confusedly.

 

Jeongyeon is first to notice her, not noticing Tzuyu and Chaeyoung’s eye conversation. “Oi, Tzuyu!” She calls, waving her over.

 

Tzuyu hesitantly comes over, wary and suspicious. Chaeyoung smiles sheepishly at the taller girl.

 

Nayeon blinks up at her. “We saved your seat.” She innocently pats the empty seat besides her. They all turn to look at her expectantly. Tzuyu feels awkward, so she just sits.

 

“Hey you guys!”

 

Heads snap back up to see Minatozaki Sana standing over them, tall, pretty, and bright. “Oh, hey Sana.” Jihyo greets, chewing on her bread.

 

“Relocating?” Sana asks, easily sitting down with smooth conversation. Chaeyoung and Tzuyu don’t say a word.

 

The other girls just laugh. “Where’s Dahyun?” Jeongyeon asks through a mouthful of burrito.

 

Sana shrugs carelessly. “Somewhere over there.” She waves vaguely to the other side of the room. “I’m just glad she’s not dancing on any tables today.” They laugh as Sana settles easily into their atmosphere, staying to chat and joke and coo at Chaeyoung and attempt to flirt with Tzuyu. It feels- it somehow feels safe, with more people around, and although Chaeyoung still doesn’t quite know what exactly has transpired (hint: social media and a bunch of generation Z-ers), she can’t find it in herself to complain.

 

“Hey, is that Momo?” Nayeon squints at a blob of blonde wandering aimlessly at the entrance of the cafeteria.

 

“Oh, I think I forgot to tell her where we were. Chaeyoung, Tzuyu, you guys know Momo right? She’s in band and she plays the drums.” Jihyo says, pulling her phone out. The two nod; they actually know Momo a little more than they know the others present. Momo is a kind soul, an older sister type- she’s always helping everyone out, and she’s nice to everyone.

 

Jihyo looks like she’s about to call Momo, but Jeongyeon beats her to the chase, leaping to her feet and hurling the tinfoil of her burrito. It whizzes through the air and miraculously manages to nail Momo’s thigh, causing an ungraceful squawk and Momo’s head to whip up in their direction. Jihyo waves, and the blonde blob veers direction to make her way over. 

 

“Wow. Is this a party or something?” Momo smiles as she looks around, taking a seat diagonal Chaeyoung.

 

“Of course, since I’m here.” Sana flips her hair exaggeratedly and it’s dead silent.

 

…

 

_“Pft.”_

 

Everyone is shocked to hear Tzuyu snicker and they turn to stare shocked at her instead. Sana is astounded, and then everyone bursts out laughing.

 

“Sana, you-”

 

“Shut _up_ Momoring, I _know-_ ”

 

“That was so bad-”

 

“Can you literally not-”

 

“Can anyone tell me if that’s Mina all the way over there, please?”

 

They finally stop roasting the shit out of Sana to look where Jeongyeon is pointing.

 

Momo pauses all movement except chewing. “Looks like her. Walking like a derp and all.” She says uninterestedly, returning her attention back to her rice.

 

“It is! Go get her, Jihyo!” Nayeon points like an excited dog-owner and Jihyo sets off with a gleeful grin, creeping up to the unsuspecting girl.

 

Chaeyoung seriously feels bad for Mina as Jihyo stealths towards her, slowly coming up from behind for the kill and ending it with a spear to rival Roman Reigns. Mina squawks, flapping a little bit in surprise as Jihyo leaps at her and then they’re both floored. Jihyo gets up faster though, clearly unfazed, and wastes no time in dragging Mina’s limp body across the ground.

 

_She’s gonna have to do a lot of laundry later._

 

“I found her everyone!” Jihyo preens proudly, dumping her friend at Nayeon’s feet. Nayeon peers down at her.

 

“Hello, Mina.”

 

Mina chokes.

 

Chaeyoung wants to choke too, but she can’t really say that out loud. Tzuyu has been chewing silently this entire time, just sparing passing glances at the weird upperclassmen, but when Mina finally manages to stumble to her feet and brush herself off, she glances up.

 

“Hi unnie.”

 

Mina smiles tiredly down at the girl. “Hey there Tzuyu.”

 

“Wait a second hold up hold up hold up- Mina-chan, you _know_ her??” Sana leaps to her feet, obviously outraged as she points an accusatory finger at her fellow Japanese friend.

 

Mina blinks at her, confused. “Yes, of course.” She and Tzuyu look up at Sana with wide eyes.

 

“And you didn’t think to introduce me??”

 

Mina blinks again. “I did, remember?”

 

“When?!”

 

“Maybe a week or so ago? You don’t remember?”

 

“How can I remember something that hasn’t even happened?!?”

 

“But it did happen. You were probably just too busy trying to kill me.”

 

_Tzuyu swallows as she feels the weight of her fellow schoolmates’ stares on her back. Mina stares at Sana weirdly, who just wears a spectacular smile on her face that practically gleams as she keeps her arm around Mina’s slim shoulders._

 

_“Mina-chan, you’re so skinny. You should eat more.” Sana comments after the awkward silence following her appearance, poking at Mina’s ribcage. The other Japanese girl squawks and smacks Sana’s hand away._

 

_“Stop that!”_

 

_A gleam suddenly appears in Sana’s eyes (that’s never good) and she takes her arm away from Mina’s shoulders. Mina blinks curiously at the other girl who suddenly has a predatory look in her eyes._

 

_“Are you by any chance, ticklish?”_

 

_Sana’s hands go straight for Mina’s sides not a moment after, and the normally cool and composed girl leaps five feet in the air screaming. “OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING ASDFGHJKL STAHP STAHP PLEASE I BEG YOU AHAHAHA LORD JESUS HAVE MERCY ON ME SOMEONE PLEASE GET THIS HEATHEN OFF ME-“_

 

_Sana stops after a couple minutes when she’s satisfied and Mina is keeled over on the ground, chest heaving for breath and face completely red. Tzuyu stands by awkwardly._

 

_“Um, Mina unnie? Are you alright?”_

 

_She extends a hesitant hand to the floored senior who haggardly accepts, and Mina is pulled to her feet. She casts Sana a glare before smoothing out her rumpled black t-shirt and ripped jeans._

 

_“Who even are you?” She squints at Sana who only beams brightly at her._

 

_“I’m Sana. I don’t think we’ve ever formally met.” The flutist extends her right hand to Mina, who looks at it hesitantly before shaking it, despite her suspicions. Her suspicious prove correct-Sana’s other hand instantly sneaks to Mina’s ribcage but this time Mina is prepared; she smacks Sana’s hand away with the speed of light, readily impressing both Tzuyu and Sana, who snatches her hand back after the unexpected retaliation. Sana smiles at Mina guiltily as Mina glares at her._

 

_“Well played Mina-chan, well played.”_

 

Sana glares at Mina. “See! You didn’t introduce me- _I_ introduced me! To you!”

 

“Oh. I’m sorry- you’re right.” Mina says, still looking a little confused.

 

“Y’all bonded fast.” Jeongyeon comments through a mouth full of salami.

 

“Shut up!” Sana is quick to send her a scathing glare. Jeongyeon hiccups a little and backs off.

 

“Anyway,” Mina ignores Sana and a cowering Jeongyeon to tug Tzuyu’s arm closer to them. “Tzuyu, this is Sana. Sana, this is Tzuyu.”

 

“That was the shittiest introduction I’ve ever seen.” Momo says as she steals a piece of Mina’s salad. “Ew, Mina- how can you eat this? This is disgusting!”

 

“It would be a lot tastier if _someone_ hadn’t broken into my pantry and eaten all the croutons!”

 

“Hm, wonder who that could be.”

 

Mina sighs in obvious despair as she turns her attention back to the issue at hand. Tzuyu clears her throat, catching the attention of the bickering upperclassmen. “Actually, we’ve met.”

 

“WHAT?! When???” Sana almost falls over.

 

Tzuyu doesn’t blink. “At the library concert, you came up and talked to Chaeyoung. I was with her. And the other time you just mentioned- Mina unnie introduced me after.”

 

Mina turns to Sana all accusing eyes and disapproving fingers. Sana looks shook. “Wh- so you know me?” She asks Tzuyu confusedly, barely noticing Mina preparing to shoot her roasts.

  
Tzuyu shrugs and nods. “But we first met the other time you tried to kill Mina unnie.”

 

Sana almost faints.

 

Mina looks over, pissed. “See! You did meet her! When you were trying to _kill_ me-”

 

“I never actually tried to kill you I just tried to tickle you!”

 

“I could’ve _died_ , Sana-”

 

“Oh stop being dramatic Mina-chan, you’re still standing here with enough energy to argue with me!”

 

“Oh, which reminds me!” Jihyo cuts them off. “Sana, the conductor asked to meet you before class today- you didn’t forget, did you?”

 

“Dammit!” Sana leaps to her feet (it’s obvious she’s forgotten). “I gotta go!”

 

Momo starts to laugh at her and the flutist takes a generous moment to send her a scathing glare.

 

“What’s all this for?” Nayeon asks curiously, looking up from her meal.

 

“We were going to talk about one of the flute solos in one of the pieces. Or something.” Sana replies as she gathers her things. “I don’t know for sure which one though.”

 

“Isn’t there one in Ode to Joy? We’re playing it for the Christmas concert, right?” Mina asks placidly, looking oh-so-innocently at Sana.

 

Chaeyoung casts a quick glance at Tzuyu, who doesn’t say anything. The Ode to Joy flute solo is actually a duet with a clarinet soloist. Since Tzuyu is first chair, it’s only right to assume she’s got the duet as well as the other solos.

 

Sana seems to be secretly trying to gauge Tzuyu’s reactions as well, but it’s kind of a lost cause given the younger girl’s stoic nature. “That, and there’s like two other ones I think. I’ll let you guys know.” She says, seemingly disappointed at the lack of reaction. “I’m gonna get going. See you all in class!”

 

They wave as she saunters out, saying hi to her other friends on the way. “She’s quite popular.” Jihyo notes.

 

“Something like that.” Mina hums. “She talks to everyone.”

 

“Nosy asshole.” Momo laments through the remains of Mina’s salad.

 

Tzuyu doesn’t say anything. Chaeyoung sits and tries to watch her, but even for her, it’s not an easy task; Tzuyu would probably be the world’s best gambler, with her natural poker face; it’s so hard to read her, even after time as Tzuyu’s closest friend. Although she’s gotten much better at reading the tall girl, sometimes she still gets surprised when Tzuyu confides in her, telling her feelings that are way different than Chaeyoung initially thinks.

 

“So,” Jeongyeon turns to Momo. “Are you ready for that bio test?”

 

Momo groans, still chewing at bits of Mina’s salad. “Don’t remind me- I almost threw up when I looked at chapter 17 yesterday.”

 

“What was it about?”

 

“Digestion.”

 

Mina cackles. “Remember, gastrin doesn’t give you gas!”

 

Momo glares at her as they start to collect their things. The bell rings, signaling the end of lunch, and they all start to rise and go to their respective classes.

 

“Wait, so what does gastrin do again?”

 

“It’s a peptide hormone secreted by G-cells in the stomach. Secretion is stimulated by the presence of, or anticipation of, food entering the body because pressure receptors sense the presence of food in the stomach and then they stimulate the vagus nerve which then sends signal to the medulla- anyway, once it’s secreted, it travels through the bloodstream to the chief cells and parietal cells. Do you remember what those are important for?”

 

“Chief cells for pepsinogen release? And parietal cells for hydrochloric acid?”

 

“Correct. So, what’s pepsinogen important for?”

 

“It turns into… pepsin…?”

 

“And pepsin does what?”

 

“Protein digestion!”

 

Mina nods approvingly. “And what’s HCl important for then?”

 

Momo thinks harder about this one. “Um, it’s an acid? Oh, it unfolds the proteins or something too doesn’t it?”

 

“Yup- but remember, it also activates pepsinogen. Pepsinogen is a zymogen, remember? Which means it’s not actually active and it can’t actually do anything until it’s activated into pepsin.”

 

Momo sighs in realization. “Oh, you’re right! So gastrin ultimately helps like, increase protein digestion, right?”

 

Mina beams. “Yup! Gastrin is released in response to the presence of food, it stimulates the secretion of pepsinogen and HCl, and HCl will denature proteins to allow exposure of their peptide bonds as well as activate pepsinogen to pepsin- the active form of the enzyme that will then be able to get to the exposed peptide bonds of the denatured proteins and start the process of protein digestion. It’s just part of the hormonal regulation of the human digestive process.”

 

“You’re a lifesaver Mina.”

 

“Any time.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Listen up, class!”

 

For once in their lives, the entire band quiets down to stare at him. The conductor almost does a double take, blinking rapidly as he takes in the undivided attention. _“What’s with them today?”_

 

He clears his throat awkwardly. “We’re going to split up by section today to target some of the trickier sections in the pieces. So, let’s have the woodwinds together in here, the brass in the auditorium, and the percussion section in the back please!”

 

They all have a bit of a buffer, but surely enough, a few moments is enough for them to start ambling into some sort of organization. Momo trots out, her mallets and drumsticks swinging by her hip as the rest of the percussionists trail after her. Jeongyeon aggressively shakes Nayeon awake and drags her and her euphonium out the door to the auditorium, Dahyun and Jihyo ahead on their way. Sana excitedly takes the immediate empty spot next to Tzuyu, flopping down next to the girl with a trademark, blinding grin and a bubbly greeting that has the younger girl just staring at her awkwardly (what else is new). Mina is talking to another girl in her section, Rosé, and Chaeyoung just lingers where she is, content with her peaceful seating location.

 

“This is going to be great!” Sana says, all too excitedly as she throws her binder open to the song of the day. Tzuyu just shifts uncomfortably, desperately trying to catch Chaeyoung’s eye from a few seats away. When she finally does, she’s out of luck; Chaeyoung doesn’t seem like she’ll move anytime soon.

 

“Tzuyu! I finally memorized the F minor scale yesterday! Want to hear?”

 

The clarinetist doesn’t even get a chance to respond before Sana holds her (blindingly bright) instrument to her lips and blows. The scale blasts out like she’s known it her whole life.

 

“You learned that yesterday???”

 

“Shut up, Jamal!” Sana pauses temporarily to bark at the sarcastic offender in her section. Jamal shrinks back into his seat.

 

When she finishes the scale, she looks excitedly at Tzuyu. The girl claps, hesitant.

 

“Thank you, Tzuyu! Do you think you could help me with my other scales?”

 

Tzuyu blinks once. “Don’t you already know them?”

 

“No.” Sana blurts immediately, feeling herself get nervous. She doesn’t want to waste the chance to talk to the other girl more.

 

“Yes you do. I heard you play them at all-states last year.”

 

“What?????”

 

_“Minatozaki Sana?”_

 

_Sana pops up enthusiastically. “Right here, ma’am!”_

 

_“Please come forward. We’ll begin your examination now.”_

 

_Sana follows the proctor and trots into the room, twirling her flute in her hands. The music stand in the middle of the room remains vacant._

 

_The judge peers over at her from her desk. “No music today?”_

 

_Sana shakes her head with that same dopey smile. “Not today!” She’s memorized it all- majors, minors, harmonics, melodics, pieces and all. Minatozaki Sana is a prepared woman._

 

_The proctor eyes her hesitantly but there’s a glimmer of respect behind her spectacles. “Very well then. I’ll have one of the volunteers bring that stand aside for you then. In the meantime, why don’t you take a couple minutes to warm up?”_

 

_Sana nods and raises her flute to her lips, fingers fluttering over her instrument as she runs up and down her major scales. The proctor opens the door and waves Tzuyu, a freshman at the time, into the room to remove the stand. Tzuyu silently enters to take the stand, and hears all of Sana’s scales while she’s there._

 

“That was you??”

 

Tzuyu nods, quite staunch, as her huge eyes staaaaarreeeee at Sana’s befuddled expression.

 

_Dammit._

 

Sana plasters on what she hopes is a convincing smile (it isn’t). “I’ll be right back, okay?”

 

Tzuyu shrugs and nods, raising her clarinet to her lips. Sana slowly rises from her seat, and then makes a break towards what she thinks is Mina. She’s lucky today- it is indeed Mina. The girl almost spits out her reed when Sana crashes into her.

 

“Mina chan!”

 

Mina hisses, shielding her saxophone protectively. “You again!”

 

“Yes, me again! You gotta help me, Mina chan!”

 

“I can’t play the flute!”

 

Sana has to pause at that. “Really? Have you ever tried?” She’s genuinely curious, as she explores her love of her flute and the overall instrument in general.

 

Mina nods solemnly, a somber look settling in her eyes. “I almost blew out a piece of my lung.”

 

Sana feels slightly apologetic for asking. “Oh. I’m sorry.”

 

“It was a dark time.”

 

They stare at each other for a few moments before Sana finally remembers what her initial objective was. “Oh, but anyway! Mina chan, you gotta help me- my plan to force Tzuyu to spend time with me is falling through!”

 

“How? You actually had a plan this time!”

 

“A bad one! Mina chan, what should I do?”

 

Mina strokes her chin in imaginary thought as Sana explains the situation to her. “She is powerful. Very powerful.”

 

Sana nods in haggard agreement. “Yup. So what should I do now??”

 

Rosé, who sits next to Mina in the saxophone section, is looking on at the whole situation amusedly. “Maybe you should just keep it casual.” She muses, leaning back in her seat.

 

Sana’s head snaps to look at her. “Casual??”

 

“Yeah- just start a normal conversation, you know?”

 

“N-Normal????”

 

Rosé blinks. “Yeah, normal?”

 

Sana is clearly a little flustered. “Wh- what does that mean?!?”

 

Rosé can only stare back at her.

 

When Sana turns back to Mina for help, it seems her luck has run out today- Mina looks just as startled as Sana feels. Sana gasps. “You too???”

 

Mina looks totally shook, and Sana would be laughing at the look on her face if this wasn’t such a dire situation for her as well. Rosé tries her best with her limited Korean to explain the idea of ‘normal’ to the other limited-Korean speakers as well. Sana nods seriously when Rosé finishes stumbling through her broken, fragmented sentences (luckily for them, Mina understands English and is relatively able to translate to Japanese for Sana to comprehend). “I understand.”

 

Mina eyes her warily. “Do you?”

 

Rosé just grins happily at the flutist. “Fighting!” She makes a nice little victory gesture to cheer Sana on, and the flute players steels herself to get back in there and put the moves on the hottest girl in school.

 

“Hello again.”

 

Tzuyu nods at her, halfway through a couple bars they’re supposed to practice, and turns back to her instrument. Sana twitches nervously as she raises her own. _Might as well try and be productive._

 

Somewhere a few minutes into her playing, she feels Tzuyu’s gaze flit between her and her sheet music. Sana looks over, curious; to her immense surprise, Tzuyu is smiling sheepishly at her. “Sorry. I just noticed your flutter-tonguing is really good. Your technique is insane.”

 

_A compliment?!_

 

Sana doesn’t know what to do. This had been the last situation she’d expected. “What?”

 

“I said your flutter technique is amazing. Do you think you could teach me sometime?”

 

_NANI??????_

 

“Oh. OH. S-sure! I can help you, but only if you want. You’re really good at this whole music thing too, so.” Sana trails off sheepishly, the most shy she thinks she’s ever been in her life.

 

Tzuyu’s smile looks like it’s been plucked straight out of a magazine. Sana can’t help her staring, and she wants to say something because this is honestly such a rare chance, she doesn’t know when she’ll get another one, and right when she thinks of the right words to say-

 

“ALRIGHT LOSERS, STEP ASIDE.”

 

_ Whomst???_

 

Nayeon bursts through the door with the force of a thousand pitbulls. “MYOUI MINA, MYOUI MINA. CALLING FOR ALL PERSONS NAMED MYOUI MINA.”

 

Mina almost chokes on her reed. “E-excuse me??” She looks mortified, as all her section-mates turn to look at her curiously.

 

Nayeon doesn’t seem to notice her. Jihyo and Jeongyeon have entered as well, and are standing on chairs looking for her. “MYOUI MINA PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF KNOWN IMMEDIATELY.”

 

Mina does her best to hide behind Rosé. She recognizes that they very likely won’t see her if she doesn’t say anything- and she really wants to practice today, with all the tricky accidentals and the strange time signature. Unfortunately for her, it seems like life has other plans.  


 

“Right over here!” Sana calls, raising her flute to point to Mina’s cowering form. Nayeon’s eyes immediately catch her hiding form.

 

“THERE YOU ARE. MYOUI MINA, PLEASE HELP US!”

 

At the strange request, Mina finally lowers her instrument to blink at her classmates confusedly (all three of them are brass players too; they’re supposed to be in the auditorium). “With what?”

 

Turns out, the biology test had Nayeon totally caught by surprise. A few minutes, some popcorn, and a frantic “PLEASE HELP US WITH BIOLOGY MINA SENSEI!” later, Mina finds herself standing in front of a whiteboard, her saxophone still hanging from her neck, with every band student in their biology class sitting obediently on the ground in front of her taking notes on the crude diagram of an alimentary canal she’d hastily drawn.

 

She takes this chance to eat the snacks that Jeongyeon had thrown at her. “So what happens first when I eat this popcorn??”

 

“Salivary amylase makes you throw it back up!”

 

“Wrong!”

 

“Salivary amylase dissolves the butter!”

 

“No!”

 

“Salivary amylase begins starch digestion!”

 

“Correct! Five points for Jihyo! Although there isn’t much starch in this thing to begin with.”

 

Rosé raises her hand. “Just to confirm, humans can’t digest plant cellulose correct?”

 

“Correct. Can anyone please explain to Miss. Park why this is the case?”

 

Sana’s hand shoots up from the back. “We can’t digest the beta-1,4 bonds in plants because our starch-digesting enzymes can’t get through the structure of the plant bonds, which have the -OH group alternating sides!”

 

“Good! 10 points for Minatozaki.” Dahyun, standing to the side, slashes some tally marks under Sana’s name on a separate board.

 

Mina draws their attention back, rapidly tapping the green expo marker on the board. “What happens to the popcorn next??”

 

Momo raises her hand. “The bolus created in the mouth travels down the esophagus by deglutition and peristalsis and enters the stomach lumen!”

 

“Correct! Five points for Momo!”

 

“And then it’s mechanically and chemically digested a bit before moving through to the small intestine!”

 

“Another five points for Jihyo! Can someone name the sphincter it has to pass through to reach the small intestine?”

 

“PYLORIC SPHINCTER!” Sana screams, knocking over three people as she surges forward. 

 

“10 POINTS FOR MINATOZAKI!”

  
The underclassman Sana had forced to stand watch for them suddenly pokes his head in. “The conductor’s heading in here!”

 

Nayeon all but barrels behind Chaeyoung, who is sitting in front of a couple boxes casually fluttering her fingers on her oboe. Jeongyeon manages to slip out the other door and sneak back into the nearby auditorium, and Jihyo jumps out the window (luckily they’re on the ground level). Sana pushes a chair towards Mina so hard, it knocks the sax player’s knees out and the rest of them scramble to some sort of seat to stare at some sort of music.

 

It’s a miracle how the frazzled conductor doesn’t notice anything wrong with the situation. Sana is seated comfortably on a dissatisfied Tzuyu’s lap, her flute crooked but to her lips, Mina’s saxophone has hit her square in the groin and if she’s being totally honest, it kind of hurts. Dahyun is hiding underneath an abnormally large tuba bell, Nayeon is in a box, and the rest of them have contorted into any sort of strange resting formation that can’t possibly be comfortable.

 

He looks around the room, but they’ve all not budged and they all seem to be practicing pretty well so he has nothing to say. He scratches his head in confusion before turning to head back to the percussion section in the cafeteria- apparently Momo has decided that she wants a snack, and is insistent on obtaining an ice cream bar from one of the vending machines, resulting in all the members of the percussion section trying to stick their arms up the vending machine to grab at the lowest row. He then remembers the current situation and is quick to dash off again, before Momo can really eat the whole bottom row of the vending machines (she’s quite the contortionist).

 

Once he leaves, Sana hops off Tzuyu’s lap and yanks the chair out from underneath Mina’s butt. Chaeyoung is kind enough to unlock the self-locking box that Nayeon is hiding in, who in turn goes to lift the tuba bell off Dahyun’s crouching form. Jeongyeon strolls back into the room like nothing’s ever happened, and Rosé helps tug Jihyo back inside. The French hornist lands like a beached tuna, right on Jeongyeon’s foot who screams in pain.

 

Needless to say, the digestive process isn’t as hard as it seems.


	9. academic success

“GUESS WHAT LOSERS!!” Nayeon almost breaks down Mina’s door in her haste.

 

“You finally found your checkbook?”

 

“You finally realized how tone-deaf you are?”

 

“You finally decided to eat your veggies?”

 

“Yes, no, and no. But I totally aced that bio test last week!” An elated Nayeon crows, hi-fiving Momo while Jeongyeon groans in frustration.

 

“Are you serious?!”

 

“100%!” Nayeon turns to slap her comrade in the face with the test paper. Jeongyeon almost falls over from the force.

 

“Congratulations.” Mina calls from her spot at the stove, where she’s making ‘scrambled eggs’. “But would it kill you to open the door like a normal person next time?”

 

Nayeon rolls her eyes. “What are you talking about- I totally did.” She says, effectively closing down the conversation and taking a seat at the counter next to Jihyo. “Anyway, it’s all thanks to you, Mina! None of this would be possible without your loving, steadfast, totally voluntary support-”

 

“Are you sure it was voluntary?” Jeongyeon mutters from the other side of the open-ended kitchen, where she’s bringing a tea kettle to a boil.

 

“Shut up Jeong, you benefitted too.”

 

Mina ignores them in favor of making sure her eggs don’t burn. It’s a beautiful Friday evening, and no one is going to ruin her weekend this time. She doesn’t quite remember inviting all these people to her house (it started with Momo inviting herself in because, well, that’s what Momo always does, and then Jeongyeon showed up out of nowhere and then Dahyun came in through the window again smiling so brightly, Mina didn’t really have the heart to say anything to her, and then Jihyo followed her in and then Nayeon appeared waving a test paper in all of their faces which brings them to the current situation), but that’s alright- her parents are still on their business trip in Japan and her house is big enough to host everyone with minimal casualties.

 

Speaking of casualties. 

 

“Ow! Hey, watch it!”

 

“Sorry!”

 

Sana bounces into Mina’s house, closing the door behind her. Somewhere in between roasting Nayeon and Mina’s scrambled eggs, Jeongyeon had gone to open the door for Sana who had proceeded to hit her in the face with it.

 

“Would it kill you to open the door slowly next time!”

 

“I’m sorry! I will!”

 

Jeongyeon gives her one last glower before returning to her seat at the counter, where Momo places a steaming mug of chamomile before her. She mouths her thanks before taking the mug and throwing the steaming beverage down her throat in one gulp. Jihyo proceeds to do the same.

 

Momo stares at them. “I’ve never seen anyone drink tea like that.”

 

They shrug. “We’re used to it.”

 

“So do you just boil your throat?”

 

“Whatever you want to think.”

 

Momo shakes her head in amazement before setting a fresh mug in front of the newcomer. Sana smiles gratefully at her, taking a delicate sip. Momo nods in approval.

 

“See this? This is civilized behavior.”

 

Jeongyeon glares at her. “What do you mean, ‘civilized’?!”

 

“We’re civilized! Both of us!”

 

Momo glares back. “No one on the planet drinks tea like that, you barbarians!” She looks quite scandalized at the scene she’d just witnessed.

 

Mina clears her throat as they look at each other in confusion. “Momo spent her summer in England last year. Apparently, it’s left quite the impression on her.”

 

_Who knew Momo was so into tea culture._

 

“B-Barbarians?!”

 

“Take that back!”

 

Before the duo can lunge at Momo, Sana leaps up from her seat with the loudest squeal they’ve ever heard. Even Nayeon plugs her ears.

 

“Ew! Sana, what was that?”

 

“Can you shut up, please? I’m trying to concentrate.”

 

“On what?” 

 

“Mind your business!”

 

“AHHH- what was that?? Should I call the cops??”

 

Jeongyeon turns around, slightly panicked. “Don’t call the cops! They’ve been after Nayeon since September!”

 

“Only since September??”

 

Dahyun blinks at the older girl. “What did you do?” She seems genuinely curious.

 

Nayeon just shrugs. “I’m not sure.”

 

Mina casts her a wary side glance but says no more. Sana is still elated, flapping her arms up and down in a blur.

 

“Guys! Tzuyu just invited me to her house!”

 

“What??”

 

“What??”

 

“What??”

 

Jihyo tilts her head, genuinely confused. “Why on earth would she invite you? You’re not even pretty.”

 

“Yeah- are you sure you didn’t read it wrong? There’s no way Tzuyu would logically invite you to her house. You’re like, the epitome of fashion terrorist.”

 

Sana stares at her. “Are you insulting my fashion choices?”

 

Jeongyeon shrugs. “I’ve seen you wear some pretty questionable pieces.”

 

Sana scowls. “Okay that might be true, but I don’t think any of them were bad enough to label me as ‘fashion terrorist’-”

 

“Fine, fine. How about fashion failure?”

 

Sana falters, looking like she’s in careful consideration. “That’s better, I guess.”

 

“[Fashion failure](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TkUFDBo2g70/WtZ906P9lYI/AAAAAAACQ_k/P8p-3SgDwCYZsLW5favCgveZPUJuH8OWwCLcBGAs/s1600/sana3.jpg) it is.” 

 

“Which makes _her_ the [fashion terrorist](https://weheartit.com/entry/316877347%C2%A0)."

 

Momo squeaks indignantly and almost chokes on her tea. “What did I ever do?!”

 

“Anyway,” Jihyo continues. “Sana, sweetie, please just make sure your corneas aren’t cracked. Insurance doesn’t cover the surgery.”

 

“They’re not! Look!” Sana waves her blinding phone screen up in the air for them all to look at. Sure enough, Tzuyu’s message is up and asking her if she’d like to come over and practice their duet one day (as per the conductor’s request, since for some reason the band hasn’t been making as much progress as usually during their lesson classes recently). It’s a rare chance, and a golden opportunity for Sana (she silently thanks the deities for Nayeon’s lack of organization and Mina’s biology lessons).

 

“The address is there and everything. Seems legit enough.” Nayeon muses, munching on a rice krispie from Mina’s cabinet. “So are you really going to practice with her?”

 

“Well, I probably should. We’re not going to have time in school to get anything done, and the conductor’s been all up on our asses about focusing in lessons for some reason.”

 

“He’s probably just paranoid.” Mina easily dismisses the notion. Dahyun nods in agreement.

 

“Well, if she was brave enough to invite you and your ugly sweaters to her house, then she must realize that too.” Jeongyeons says aloud, thoughtful and pensive. Sana squeals again (softer this time; she’s mindful not to catch any attention that would put Nayeon in prison).

 

“This is amazing, you guys!”

 

“Oh get over it! Find something prettier to wear, while you’re at it- that shirt you’re wearing is hurting my eyes!”

 

Sana looks down at her bright orange shirt self-consciously. “I should. Mina chan!”

 

“I’m [not fashionable](https://twitter.com/igbtwice/status/912031157549780993) either!”

 

The flutist is immediately latching onto her side, clinging to her sweater. “Pleeaase, Mina chan?? You’re my only hope!”

 

Nayeon shrugs dismissively. “Better than asking Momo I guess.”

 

“What is your problem-”

 

“Nothing, it’s just that you look a little funny sometimes-”

 

“At least I know how to fish!”

 

They blink at her, confused. “What are you talking about?”

 

Momo is defiant. “That’s right- I heard about your little fishing fiasco. _Your_ boat flipped over!” She points accusingly at the trio + Mina. They gasp accordingly.

 

Jihyo looks salty. “That is irrelevant and should be classified information-”

 

“OKAY.” Sana cuts them off aggressively. “You’ve made your point! I have more good news to share!”

 

“You’re leaving?”

 

Sana looks visibly aggravated. “Can you _please-_ ”

 

“Sorry, sorry.” Jeongyeon holds her hands up in surrender. Momo silently snickers and exchanges a three-way hi-five with Nayeon and Jihyo as Dahyun looks on, amused. “So what’s the tea?”

 

“I’m hosting my annual Halloween party this year.”

 

“.........”

 

“And you’re _all_ invited!”

 

“....”

 

“...”

 

“...............”

 

Sana throws her hands up as she looks around the kitchen. “Well?????”

 

Everyone just stares at her (except Dahyun because she’s gone every year).“What’s in it for us?”

 

Sana blinks, thinking seriously about the inquiry. “Free food and costumes?”

 

They look at each other pensively. “We’ll see.” Nayeon answers declaratively for all of them, moving to hide Momo behind her back. “Let me check my schedule.”

 

Sana stares at her. “You have a schedule??”

 

Nayeon tilts her head like she’s wondering why Sana is so confused. “I have a planner and everything.” She produces a bright green agenda planner from out of nowhere to show the other girl, who cranes her neck to get a better look.

 

“And you still forgot about the bio test?”

 

“Mistakes were made.” Nayeon cuts her off as fast as she can, a little too eager to dismiss the subject. Dahyun snickers again behind her hand as she exchanges humored glances with Momo, who is also doing a very poor job of hiding her giggles. “Anyway, thank you for the gracious invitation and good luck at Tzuyu’s house. If you’ll excuse me.”

 

They blink at her as she rises from her seat. “Where are you going?” Mina asks, genuinely curious.

 

“I’m going to pick up my car from the grocery store.”

 

“What?”

 

“Did I stutter?”

 

They look at each other in slight wonder. “Why would-”

 

“I’ll see you all soon! Bye lovelies!” Nayeon sings as she slams Mina’s front door shut.

 

“... is there a repair shop at her grocery store?”

 

“Why would there be?”

 

“Well, why else would her car be at the grocery store?”

 

“Maybe it got hungry and wanted some snacks.”

 

They all turn to stare at Momo, who looks around curiously. “What? It’s possible.”

 

_Oh my._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

_Knock knock._

 

Tzuyu looks up from her laptop upon hearing the rattle of wood. “Coming!” She calls, closing the device shut and making her way down the stairs.

 

Minatozaki Sana grins at her, flute case in hand. “Good afternoon!”

 

“Good afternoon, sunbae. Come in.” Tzuyu steps aside to let the girl into her expansive house. Like Mina, her parents aren’t home either; the Chous are commonly found working on weekends and resting on weekdays, unlike most other parents, but Tzuyu doesn’t mind the unusual schedule. They’re around often enough as it is, and having the house to herself on weekends is actually kind of nice.

 

“I hope you didn’t have any trouble getting here.” Tzuyu says conversationally as she shuts the door behind them and sets out some slippers for Sana.

 

“Not at all!” Sana lies through a blinding smile and gritted teeth. It’s a straight lie; Tzuyu lives in the ‘richer’ part of town, all the way atop a hill overlooking the rest of the town. It’s an arduous drive, up a long, winding driveway with no clear end in sight. Sana was almost convinced that Tzuyu had given her the wrong address on purpose, until she saw the outline of the girl’s large house at the top of the hill.

 

_Why does this girl have to live on a freaking mountain?!_

 

“That’s good to hear. Are you hungry, or have you eaten already?”

 

“I’m fine, thank you! Your place is really nice.” Sana says, looking around her curiously. It’s definitely a snazzy place; classic, open-style, similar to Mina’s home but more mansion-like and more isolated. She doesn’t seem to have any neighbors- or, at least not any visible neighbors. Sana feels a small sense of relief- at least if she majorly embarrasses herself, no one will be around to witness it (except Tzuyu she supposes, but still). But she doesn’t plan on it. Not today, not tomorrow.

 

“Thank you. My mom designed it- she’s always had a thing for altitudes.”

 

“Awesome- so, should we start then?”

 

Tzuyu smiles. “Sure.”

 

Everything’s going well. Sana and Tzuyu are sitting in chairs in Tzuyu’s naturally lit living room. It’s a really nice space; there’s a grand piano in one corner with large windows, there’s a coffee table some feet away with a couple of fashion magazines and music scores, there’s a vase full of white flowers, and Tzuyu apparently owns more than one music stand (Sana had offered to bring her own, but Tzuyu had assured her she had an extra).

 

“This one’s Chaeyoung’s.” The younger girl explains with a small smile as Sana’s gaze falls on the dual stands. “She left it here yesterday.”

 

Sana makes a mental note to thank the younger girl (later, if she can actually catch her elusive little friend. Chaeyoung is hard to come by). “What kind of flowers are those?”

 

“They’re actually a type of lily- Calla lilies. My mom loves them, she bought a bunch from a flower store that opened up recently.”

 

Sana tilts her head, thinking. “Oh, that’s nice. Do you know which store?” She racks her mind for flower stores in their town. She can’t really think of any.

 

Tzuyu shrugs as well. “Not sure, really. She just said it was fairly new.”

 

They settle into a comfortable silence, both finally assembling their instruments and filling the space with flute scales and sweet clarinet melodies. Sana tries her best to limit stealing glances at Tzuyu’s ethereal figure, sitting perfectly upright as her long fingers flit effortlessly over the clarinet body. The purple tint has washed out of the younger’s hair, which now gleams a healthy, natural oak brown. Strangely, it makes Sana like her even more- it’s mature, calm, and Tzuyu doesn’t need colors to make her stand out as it is. She’s effortlessly beautiful, a fact that amazes Sana every time she sees Tzuyu, and she’s smart and she’s kind of charming despite her quiet nature and Sana doesn’t know when it stops.

 

Anyway. Everything’s going well. They’ve just about finished warming up, and are starting to run through some measures of ‘Ode to Joy’, when there’s a mysterious shadow that flits outside the large windows across from Sana.

 

She frowns. It’s a perfectly sunny day, a crystal clear autumn afternoon. Why would there be a shadow- in that strange shape, nonetheless- outside Tzuyu’s isolated home window?

 

She shrugs it off. It’s probably just her imagination; she’s always had a vivid one.

 

 _Must not be important._  
  


Unfortunately for Sana, there’s an intervention occuring outside the window. Mina smacks Momo’s arm hard after she’d reached out to snatch the blonde back. “Yah! How could you be so careless?!”

 

Momo scowls, clutching a hand over her shoulder where Mina had smacked her. “Why do you hit so hard? It’s like smacking two sticks together.” She cradles her ‘injured’ part, glaring at Mina.

 

“Stop it, you two! If she sees us, it’s over!” Jeongyeon hisses. Dahyun sits at her side, munching on a bag of fruit snacks that Mina had gifted her earlier. She’d slept in way too late today and didn’t have time to eat breakfast when Nayeon’s Jeep had pulled up to her house.

 

Mina sighs. “Why are we here again?”

 

Jihyo pops her head out from behind one of the shrubs on Tzuyu’s lawn. “They’ve sat down to start practice.” She whispers loudly to inform them, tucking her binoculars away safely.

 

Nayeon nods approvingly. “Nice! Let’s move to the garage then.” She takes a step, well out of Sana and Tzuyu’s line of sight, and then there’s a slight squeal from the ground.

 

The older girl nearly jumps out of her skin (literally), toppling back with flailing arms. Luckily, Mina is fast enough to clamp a hand over her mouth before her scream can alert the entire town to their location. Nayeon is heaving for breath with wide eyes, flat on her ass and practically lying in Mina’s arms, as she gapes at the figure that emerges from the other bush.

 

“Ch-Chaeyoung?!?”

 

The younger girls glares at them. “Keep it down!” She shushes them and they all fall silent, startled, but obedient as they follow her gestures to crawl and join her on the other side of the window. One by one, they crawl under the window so the practicing duo won’t see them and make a silent dash to the far corner of the house.

 

“What were you doing in Tzuyu’s hydrangeas?!” Nayeon demands, still shocked. “I lost ten years of my life when I stepped on you!”

 

Chaeyoung brushes off her ripped blue jeans indignantly. “I could ask you the same thing!” She looks around and quickly realizes that Nayeon is not alone. Momo stands to her feet with Mina’s assistance, thoroughly rocked, Jeongyeon pops up next with a pail on her head, Jihyo has a pair of binoculars hanging around her neck, and Dahyun is eating fruit snacks. The youngest looks thoroughly surprised.

 

“What are you all doing here??”

 

Mina waves enthusiastically. “Hi Chaeyoung!” Jeongyeon shoves her aside.

 

Jihyo waves a hand around with a small shrug. “Spying on Sana. What does it look like we’re doing?”

 

“And what are you doing?”

 

Chaeyoung throws up her hands helplessly. “Spying on Tzuyu. What does it look like I’m doing?”

 

Nayeon beams, pleasantly surprised at the younger girl’s answer. “Why, Chaeyoung! You should’ve said so before- we could’ve given you a ride!” She runs over aggressively to wrap Chaeyoung in a tight hug that no one asked for.

 

“Yeah, the more the merrier! Why don’t you join us?” Jihyo and Momo sport matching toothy grins, turning to fully face the sophomore.

 

Chaeyoung stares at them through her round glasses as she weighs her options. She’s clearly outnumbered. She’s also outmuscled, and even if she tried to run Nayeon had a car parked somewhere in the bushes- they’d catch up in no time. And it might not be bad to snatch a ride home, if she could. 

 

“Alright then. But, why are you spying on Sana unnie?”

 

Momo shrugs, making weird gestures with her hands as she tries to explain their irrational actions. “She said the conductor asked them to practice their duet separately, and then Tzuyu apparently invited her over to run it through a couple times. We’re here to supervise.”

 

“Supervise?” Chaeyoung arches a relatively skeptical brow.

 

“Yeah, supervise!” Nayeon and Jihyo link arms to cheer, exchanging the most enthusiastic high-five that Chaeyoung is slowly getting used to witnessing. She’s mildly surprised that their hands haven’t fallen off yet. 

 

_How powerful._

 

“Anyway. Why are you here, then?”

 

Chaeyoung balks a little. “Umm…”

 

_“Tzuyu, can I talk to you for a minute?”_

 

_Both Chaeyoung and Tzuyu look up at the conductor. “What is it, sir?”_

 

_He smiles at her, always approving and kind. Tzuyu is his best clarinet player, after all; she never disappoints and is always well-behaved. Every band teacher’s wish come true. “Have you looked at Ode to Joy yet?”_

 

_Tzuyu thinks for a few seconds before sporting a sheepish smile and a truthful answer. “Not really. I’ve played through the first few measures, but I haven’t gotten really far.”_

 

_The conductor waves a reassuring hand. “That’s no problem- I just wanted to bring something in the piece to your attention. The clarinet has a duet with the flute at a certain part of the song, and I’d like you to take the clarinet portion of it if that’s alright with you.”  
  
“Sure.” Tzuyu nods. They’d all pretty much expected this anyway- she’s entitled to most, if not all, of her section’s solos as it is._

 

_The conductor continues. “The first chair flutist, Sana, has already agreed to play the flute part. I’d like to ask you to look over the part and practice it with her, whenever the both of you have time. We’re on a tight schedule as it is in class so I don’t think we’ll have time to focus on just your parts specifically.”_

 

_Tzuyu blinks. “Oh. I understand.” She nods as she snaps her clarinet case shut. Chaeyoung watches on silently. “Does she know?”_

 

_The conductor smiles sheepishly. “She should- I’ve already been over all this with her, but she’s- well, a little flighty sometimes and I’m not sure if she’ll remember.”_

 

_Chaeyoung’s the only one who notices Tzuyu’s awkward smile. “Ah, alright then. Don’t worry sir- we’ll have it down in time for the concert.”_

 

_The conductor looks grateful for an angel like Tzuyu. “Thank you.”_

 

Truthfully, although Sana’s been nothing but weird with Tzuyu, Chaeyoung knows that the taller girl harbors no ill feelings for their senior. She also knows for a fact that Sana has the biggest crush on Tzuyu- thanks to her subtle observations and the whole ‘chair’ fiasco Sana had gone through at the beginning of the school year. 

 

_“So would you be willing to give it up, since it’s ‘just a chair’?” Chaeyoung quotes placidly, gazing at Sana through the thick lenses of her spectacles._

 

_Sana shoots her a withering glare. “NO. Absolutely not! My love life is on the line here, don’t you understand??” She practically barks, shaking both Chaeyoung’s caffè latte and her own caramel frappuccino._

 

_Chaeyoung blinks at the older girl sitting across from her. “Love life?” She asks with carefully veiled curiosity._

 

_Sana sighs dramatically. “I need to have that duet with-“_

 

_Chaeyoung watches, amused as Sana halts midsentence looking like she’s wishing she could take back everything she’s said in the past five minutes. It seems like she’d forgotten who she was talking to- Chaeyoung is Tzuyu’s best friend, and the title comes with a certain set of unspoken responsibilities (like not hesitating to tell Tzuyu everything and anything, especially when it concerns her). Oh dear. Chaeyoung stifles a laugh as Sana slumps down in her seat, visibly deflated._

 

_Chaeyoung holds her tongue though, waiting expectantly, and is further amused when Sana shoots her an awkward smile in a last-ditch attempt to cover her tracks. “Uhhh- with Momo!”_

 

_Oh my. Chaeyoung raises a brow. “Momo?”_

 

_She sips her latte calmly, watching the panic wheels turning in Sana’s head as the older girl forges on. “Yeah- Momo said she's really impressed with my flute playing, you see, and I have to keep my chair if I want to maintain my good image!” Sana rubs the back of her neck sheepishly when she’s done rambling. Chaeyoung puts on what she thinks is a fooled explanation, aiming to have Sana think that she’s fooled Chaeyoung with her awkward lies. Luckily, Sana seems to buy it._

 

Momo looks scandalized. “That traitor! Using me as a scapegoat, without my permission!”

 

Jihyo tuts disapprovingly, gently reprimanding Momo. “That’s what you get when you don’t copyright your name.”

 

The blonde’s shoulders slump over in defeat. “You’re right. Can you get me one of those copyright forms when we leave?”

 

“Wait- why is your name copyrighted?” Mina suddenly asks, turning to address Jihyo with extreme curiosity.

 

“I’ll bring you one on Monday, Momo.” Jihyo ignores Mina as she nods at Momo who smiles gratefully.

 

Chaeyoung shifts her weight to one leg as she appraises the pissed percussion player. “She also muttered something afterward about, and I quote, ‘I wouldn’t date Momo if she were the last lesbian on earth’.” 

 

Momo almost faints. “That- that- what-”

 

Jeongyeon sighs and goes to pat Momo on the back comfortingly. “There there.”

 

“She didn’t- she hasn’t even seen my abs-” Momo babbles something else incoherent before all but dropping into Jeongyeon’s arms. Mina waves an unsympathetic hand over her face to fan her extremely offended friend.

 

Chaeyoung sighs as she takes in the scene before her. Sana is a good person- she’s always smiling at everyone and wearing her heart on her sleeve. Always well-intentioned, kind, and generous with her peers. Chaeyoung can’t help but admire the older girl, especially after getting to know her a little better. She knows that Sana’s got heart eyes for Tzuyu, and usually she’d be against anyone trying to do anything with Tzuyu, but Sana’s not trying to _do_ anything as much as she just genuinely likes the taller girl. Chaeyoung knows that Sana would be good for Tzuyu, even if just a little bit. So when Tzuyu had told her that she’d invited the older girl to practice the duet with her, Chaeyoung couldn’t help the concern that rose in her chest for her best friend, who wasn’t the most social or good at dealing with others. 

 

Hence their current predicament. When Chaeyoung had snuck over, hoping to keep an eye on her socially stunted best friend, she hadn’t expected to run into anyone else- much less the _six_ others that currently stood before her trying to resuscitate a famished Momo.

 

Dahyun holds out her hand. “Want some fruit snacks, unnie?”

 

Momo just opens her mouth. Dahyun ungracefully jumps the rest of the bag in the older’s mouth; to her credit, Momo doesn’t choke and she’s able to get back up within twenty-eight seconds.

 

“Thank you, Dahyun. Now, where were we?” Nayeon straightens up to look at them all.

 

“The roof! Get on the roof!” Jeongyeon points an excited finger at the extremely high roof of Tzuyu’s mini-mansion. Momo turns pale.

 

“No way!”

 

“Yes way! Get your ass over here and help me with the belay!” Jeongyeon produces what seems to be a harness and a belay device out of the duffel bag on Mina’s shoulders, and drags the reluctant blonde to strap her in.

 

Chaeyoung is impressed. _They came prepared._

 

“Who’s up first??” Jeongyeon barks at them impatiently. Jihyo excitedly raises her hand.

 

“I volunteer as tribute!”

 

“Get your ass here too!” Jeongyeon has somehow managed to get the rope attached to what seems to be a chimney on the roof. Jihyo trots over happily, allowing Jeongyeon to clip the device onto her harness.

 

“Woohoo!” Jihyo cheers as she begins her ascent. “This is so much fun- why didn’t we think of this earlier?”

 

“Because none of our houses are this tall?”

 

Chaeyoung watches in mild fascination as the whole thing unfolds. Mina comes up beside her, donning a comforting smile and a supportive hand. Chaeyoung turns to the pretty older girl gratefully, expecting something along the lines of ‘sorry, they’re not usually like this’ but then-

 

“Want to go next, Chaeyoung?” Mina beams at her. Chaeyoung gulps a little as she watches the scene over Mina’s shoulder, as Momo is forced to ascend after Jihyo.

 

“Um- sure.”

 

Mina just grins at Chaeyoung’s slightly shocked face and gently wraps slender fingers around her wrist. “Come on then! I’m sure it’s safe.”

 

“You’re only sure-”

 

“Up you go!”

 

Chaeyoung claps a hand over her mouth to keep her screams in as Jihyo, who has already successfully reached the rooftop, reaches over to grab Chaeyoung’s rope and yank her up.

 

The older girl looks impressed, approvingly at Chaeyoung. “She’s so light- much lighter than you, you pig!”

 

Momo shakes her head sadly as she gazes down at the younger. “Poor thing. Who starved you?”

 

“We can feed her later- now come here and help me pull!” Momo just laughs at the look on Jihyo’s face but complies, the duo immediately hoisting a befuddled Chaeyoung up to join them on Tzuyu’s roof.

 

The younger girl stares placidly. “I’ve been to Tzuyu’s house many times, but I’ve never set foot on the roof.”

 

“There’s a first for everything!” Mina sings airily as she straps herself in next. Momo and Jihyo have no trouble pulling her up and she lands with a slight ‘ooph’ next to Chaeyoung, who’s got her knees to her chest as she looks down at the ground below.

 

Mina peers over as well. “What a view.”  
  
“Tell me about it.”  
  


“INCOMING!” 

 

Both Mina and Chaeyoung shriek a little as Mina instinctively pulls Chaeyoung to her chest, shielding her from the incoming Dahyun, who had been lighter than Momo and Jihyo anticipated, and gone flying up a little too high upon the extra force.

 

Chaeyoung cowers in the warmth of Mina’s arms. The older girl is strong- stronger than she looks, at least. It’s an interesting fact Chaeyoung can’t help but notice. “Thanks.” She mutters gratefully.

 

“No problem. It’s a long way down.”

 

Her heart is beating a little faster than usual. She supposes that’s a little normal though, considering her huge crush on Mina. Unlike the last time she was in Mina’s arms (think: ditz!Sana and gym nets), this time, there’s a lot less going on. Sure she’s sixty-something feet in the air again and sure there’s something being launched her way, but as she watches Mina watch their other friends flying through the air, she can’t help but want to count the moles on Mina’s face, brush her fingers over her lips and tell her how beautiful she is and-

 

Chaeyoung blushes. When did she turn into such a sap?

 

_Must be the height thing._

 

“So, you’ve never been on Tzuyu’s roof hm?”

 

“Never.” Chaeyoung replies honestly. “I mean, why would I?”

 

Mina just laughs. “I don’t know. The view, maybe?”

 

She’s not wrong. The view is amazing, up high on Tzuyu’s tall house, with the autumn sun softly filtering over the trees and striking Mina’s eyes a bronzed gold. Chaeyoung feels her breath catch in her throat.

 

“Yeah. The view.”

 

“Anyway, I’m really glad we ran into you today, Chaeyoung. I wasn’t really sure about the whole ordeal, but seeing you made this whole thing worth it.” Mina smiles at her as they watch their friends sling up the roof one by one. Nayeon comes up with a muffled shriek and is greeted with a ‘stop being a wuss’ from Jeongyeon down below. “I’ve been wanting to get to know you for a long time.”

 

Chaeyoung swears her heart nearly stops in her chest. Mina is looking at her, nothing but earnest and nothing but kind- it’s like she actually wants to get to know Chaeyoung for who she is, not for any of the ridicule everyone pins on her at school and not for any of the shenanigans she’s affiliated with in chemistry and band, and it’s almost incomprehensible to her why someone like Mina would want to get to know someone as ordinary as she feels.

 

The older girl continues with a slight blush tinting her cheeks. “I know it’s weird, but you- you’ve always been so gentle and kind. You’re so special, Chaeyoung, and I-”

 

“What the hell?!?”

 

They all freeze in their tracks. Mina and Chaeyoung’s heads snap to the right, looking off the roof, and they know the game’s up.

 

Sana looks like she doesn’t know if she should be furious or if she should laugh. Her eyes dart back and forth between Nayeon and Jihyo, who are trying to wrestle their belay off Tzuyu’s gutter, and Mina and Chaeyoung who are sitting a little too close to be considered friendly. “Wh- what are you doing here?!?”

 

Dahyun blinks placidly down at her. “What are _you_ doing here?” She’s backed by six other pairs of eyes staring down at her, unmoving, unblinking.

 

Sana exhales heavily through her nose.

 

_Oh my gosh._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sana knew something was up when she saw those weird ass shadows moving across Tzuyu’s lawn.

 

It just didn’t add up; Gucci (who she quickly learned was Tzuyu’s beloved Pomeranian) was asleep- had been since Sana set foot in the house. There were no trees, or at least none that were mobile. Tzuyu had informed her that there was no maintenance scheduled for the property today, and that the closest neighbors were well above seventy years old- far too old to be moving so fast. She had her suspicions, but she didn’t want to waste valuable time with Tzuyu. So she held it in, tried her best to ignore the hushed voices that flitted around every now and then, ignored the shadows and the weird shapes and chalked it up to stray leaves and branches.

 

But when she heard the footsteps on the roof, she knew it was over.

 

“Tzuyu?”

 

The younger girl stops, mid-clarinet note. “Yes?”

 

“Excuse me a moment, okay?”

 

Tzuyu shrugs. “Sure.”

 

Sana plasters on her best smile as she awkwardly sets her flute down on her chair, and turns to make a break for the door. Tzuyu just turns back to her music, chalking it up to the older girl’s weird behavior.

 

Sana sprints to the back left corner of the large house the moment she excuses herself from practice. To her horror and mild disbelief, her worst suspicions are confirmed; seven people (who certainly don’t live here) have climbed onto the roof of Tzuyu’s grand living space, eating fruit snacks and arguing about tea culture.

 

Momo is first to see her. “Oh my!” She points at Sana and gets the rest of their attention.

 

Sana feels her blood boil. “What the hell?!”

 

They look guilty as they are. Sana has so many questions (like how did they get up there, why does Momo look like she wants to punch her, why do Mina and Chaeyoung look so cozy sitting there, why does Dahyun have so many fruit snacks) but there are more important matters at hand.

 

“I knew it! I knew something was weird about today!” The flute player laments, dropping her face into her hands. “I heard the footsteps and everything!”

 

“But we didn’t break anything!”

 

“Yeah- not a single roof tile wrecked!”

 

Sana sighs. It _is_ a remarkable accomplishment for them, but she can’t accept this situation.

 

“Would you all get down from there, please???”

 

They sulk and whine, but begrudgingly begin the process of lowering themselves from the roof. Sana watches as one by one, they drop down through the air. Momo lands first, ungracefully splattering into the grassy ground. Nayeon follows her, then Chaeyoung (when did she get here??) and Mina follows her quickly. Jihyo does a (really bad) somersault as she leaps down, letting the belay hold her weight. Dahyun goes next, then finally Jeongyeon.

 

Sana glares at them. “You are all going to come with me and explain to Tzuyu why you were on her roof on a Saturday afternoon.”

 

They sigh, but the gig’s up. Momo gets up to follow her, and then a pissed Sana starts to lead them all to the front door.

 

“Shall we?”

 

Chaeyoung looks up to see Mina’s extended hand and her bright, gummy smile. She’s tired, that’s a definite, but something has changed between yesterday and today. 

 

She thinks about all the time she’s spent admiring this girl from afar, never taking any initiative to talk to her or even go near her. She thinks about her quieter days, just going through the motions of school, studying, keeping her head down, and playing her oboe- how steady and routine, the direction she’d turned her life to. Never stepping out of line. Never introducing anything new.

 

And then she looks at Mina, their friends that mill around looking like kicked puppies trailing after Sana to Tzuyu’s front door. Mina’s bright smile, her fearless instincts despite her quiet demeanor. A girl who never cares what others think of her. A girl who’s always kind, always gentle, sensitive to the needs of those around her and caring enough to talk to anyone despite what anyone else might think. She thinks about Mina and the chem lab they’d done together, the awkward time they’d spent lying in a gym net with everyone watching, the music they’d shared in band with their friends and today’s failed spy show. Mina is- she’s kind of weird. She’s odd, beautiful, smart, and quirky. She’s everything Chaeyoung isn’t, and she accepts everything Chaeyoung is without question and an open heart.

 

So when Chaeyoung moves to take Mina’s hand she can’t help but think yeah, maybe being with this girl isn’t such a bad thing at all.


End file.
